I HAVE been watching and enjoying the series "Lads' Army" that was recently broadcast on ITV and think I have just seen the cure for youth crime.

Giving the offender 52 cautions a year does not work. Sending the baseball cap-wearing, shell-suited, spotty-faced poor unfortunate little loves on an "all expenses paid" trip to a Kenyan safari park does not work either, nor does the short, sharp shock.

So let's give the offender a long drawn-out heart-stopping shock for 12 months or so. What the junior and senior NCOs did in four weeks with those lads was a sight to see. Imagine what results could be achieved over a period of 12 to 18 months.

On completion of the offender's sentence, a relatively well-paid future in the Armed Forces is assured. This solution must offer a better future for the young criminal than robbing or thieving, and would offer a sight better future than pills in your mouth, powder up your nose or a needle in your arm.

Laughable sentencing or, worse, no sentencing at all. Social workers talking of poor little Johnny's "Issues"! Forget it. This approach has been a complete waste of time and money. This military type of training will work, giving the offender a sense of achievement, hopefully giving him or her a better future while serving the country. Also carrying a rifle around for a week or two will soon dispel any glamour associated with firearms.

Understand, I'm not referring to a return of National Service, far from it.

What I am saying is, locking some young offender away creates nothing more than a better criminal.

Training him or her will create for the country a proud, smart, disciplined, well-trained soldier. A credit to our country and much in demand across the world. This will give purpose to lives that have lacked any kind of order or discipline.

Think about it, it's worth a try.

Gary McNulty

Oxford Grove

Bolton