19,000 youths kept out of courts

ALMOST 19,000 young people involved in criminal or antisocial behaviour were last year referred to special Garda programmes designed to keep them out of the court system.

The youngsters were involved in just under 24,000 incidents, a decrease of 3,470 on 2008.

Of these, 4,252 were alcohol-related offences, 3,967 related to theft, and 3,100 were road traffic offences — the three most common offences.