10 Mt Isa Property Offenders Crash Townsville As Residential Care Homes Spill Over

Townsville has rolled out the welcome mat to 10 young property offenders from out of town.

The Bulletin has reported a group of children have been transferred to Townsville due to a shortage in Mt Isa of beds at residential care.

Flagged as hardcore child criminals, the teen property offenders are now housed in Townsville's residential accommodation but remain active in the community.

District Police were alerted in an email this week, while the Youth Justice Department have said they had no knowledge of the transfer.

Burdekin MP and Shadow Police Minister Dale Last said the decision was grossly out of touch with Townsville locked into a spat of youth crime extending into its sixth week.

“What we are effectively seeing is the Queensland government giving up on dealing with these young offenders in certain areas and, instead of doing the right thing, they are moving them around and making them someone else’s problem,”

- MP Dale Last

It comes after fresh calls for the State government to 'step it up' when it comes to tackling youth crime in the region after a 13-year-old boy lost his life in a horror crash involving an allegedly stolen car in Bowen.

Throughout May, Police recorded 153 offences related to unlawful uses of a motor vehicle and 579 break-ins at homes or businesses.

Crimewatch Townsville

Join Tom Tilley with regular rotating co-hosts Jan Fran, Annika Smethurst and Jamila Rizvi on The Briefing, Monday - Saturday, for the day's headlines and breaking news as well as hot topics and interviews. Available on Listnr.