“Foreign criminals are ending up with shorter jail terms than British offenders because police are failing to carry out adequate background checks, a former intelligence chief has warned.  Michael Askew, an ex-superintendent at Scotland Yard’s intelligence bureau, claimed simple checks that could flag up an offender’s criminal history overseas are being overlooked by police who are too busy.  And he said UK citizens are receiving comparatively longer sentences as a result, because their offending history is always considered in court.
Calling for such checks to be ‘routine’ for foreign offenders, Mr. Askew pointed to a number of failings in the way police forces across the UK handle such cases.  His warning follows a spate of high-profile cases in which violent offenders have traveled freely to the UK to commit brutal crimes despite their past.  The alleged failures of police investigations could also increase concerns ahead of the UK’s decision to open its borders to migrants arriving from Romania and Bulgaria in January.
Mr. Askew said many forces were also regularly failing to act on European Arrest Warrants, and cited cutbacks as a factor in sub-standard investigations. He said that one in ten foreign nationals arrested when he worked at Scotland Yard was the subject of such a warrant, but they were not effectively investigated. He also pointed to legislation that suggests the failure of UK courts to check an alleged offender’s criminal history could be illegal.
Speaking at a conference in Romania reported by the Times, he said: ‘Every day hundreds of foreign nationals are arrested and the police don’t always investigate the criminality of those people back in their own countries. ‘Officers are under so much pressure to move on to the next case. We are not fully exploring intelligence opportunities and that can lead to problems.’  ‘It is not fair that a UK national goes to court in the UK and their previous convictions are taken into account and they are given a heavy sentence.’
Mr. Askew, who retired from the Metropolitan Police last year, helped to establish the police national database that allows forces to share information.  A damning Government assessment published earlier this year revealed that up to one in four organized criminals targeting Britain is from overseas. The Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee will explore the issue tomorrow. The committee’s chairman Keith Vaz echoed Mr. Askew’s comments, saying that courts are being ‘left in the dark’.  He said that free movement in Europe ‘definitely aids crime’, adding: ‘It means we are putting a lesser sentence on them than we would if we knew the whole history. It is a big worry.’”
Originally posted by The Daily Mail and can be found at  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2520536/Why-foreign-criminals-softer-sentences-Police-busy-check-offenders-convictions-overseas-warns-Scotland-Yard-chief.html#ixzz2nqjNGw1Q
