ELECTRONIC tagging could soon be used on Bolton offenders after a Home Office decision to extend the controversial trial scheme.

The idea has been tried out since June in Manchester, Reading and the Norwich area, but only a small number of criminals have been tagged.

Now the experiment - in which a wrist transmitter relays a criminal's movements to a receiver monitored by private security firm Securicor - is to be extended to cover a much larger area.

It will take in the whole of Greater Manchester, Berkshire and Norfolk.

It means that Bolton, Bury and Leigh will all be included in the extended trial. But today, Worsley MP Terry Lewis blasted it as "yet another headline-grabbing expensive gimmick" to hide the fact that the government had no proper plan for dealing with crime.

"How on earth will it make it safer for elderly ladies in my constituency to walk home safely from bingo? That's what my constituents are interested in," he said.

The decision by Home Secretary Michael Howard to enlarge the scheme to cover all Greater Manchester has been taken despite the fact that Manchester magistrates have used the option only five times since the experiment began in the city. In Norfolk, the probation service described the scheme as a "flop" when a convicted shoplifter who had been tagged was eventually jailed in September after breaking his curfew 26 times in less than a month.

Under the scheme, non-violent offenders facing a custodial sentence can agree to be wrist-tagged if the court decides it is appropriate.

Any offender breaking the curfew can be returned to court and could face prison.

Peter Dawson, clerk to Bolton magistrates, said today he could not comment because instructions had not yet been received from the Home Office.

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