'Pratnav' will track electronically tagged hooligans by satellite to enforce pub and football bans



Pratnavs: Electronic tags could be used to track hooligans using satellites

A new law enforcement system dubbed 'pratnav' will track hooligans who have been electronically tagged by satellites to enforce pub and football ground bans.



‘High risk offenders’ could be put on GPS tags - using technology similar to that used in navigation systems in cars - so that their movements are constantly monitored.



An alert will then be sounded if the wearer strays into a banned area or breaks the conditions of their community sentence.



Justice Secretary Ken Clarke revealed the new measure yesterday along with other plans for criminals to face harsher community punishments.



Mr Clarke said: 'All too often they are seen as an easy option, just a weekly meeting with a probation officer or a few hours of unpaid work in an entire week.'



Under the plans, thousands more criminals could be electronically tagged instead of being sent to prison.



Other new powers will allow courts to order the seizure of criminals’ possessions worth thousands of pounds ‘as a sentence in its own right’.



This could mean courts instructing offenders to hand back their cars, computers or other luxury items as part of their punishment.

The system could be used to enforce court sentences banning criminals from going to the pub or on holiday. Posed by model

Exclusion zones can be drawn up by magistrates while criminals can also be prevented from going on holiday.



Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said the plans would ‘ensure that offenders are off the street, can’t socialise in the evening and have fewer chances to offend’.

But critics said that the measures were really aimed at cutting prisoner numbers and would leave the public at greater risk.

