OFFENDERS in Darlington are to be targeted in a crackdown on drug-driven crime.

Criminals will be offered rehabilitation in a new approach that works on the basis that prevention is better than cure.

Some of the town's most active criminals are hooked on heroin, forcing them to commit offences to feed their expensive habit.

Darlington's Community Safety Partnership, which brings together the Drug and Alcohol Action Team, police, youth justice, health and social care services, wants to tackle the issue.

Darlington Primary Care Trust has set aside £200,000 for a young people's anti-drugs campaign, to stop them starting to take drugs and helping those who are already hooked.

Non-executive director of the trust, Councillor Bill Dixon, said: "We know that many criminals are driven by their drug habits. If they need to find £500 a day, that is a lot of crime.

"If we can stop just half the most active criminals then the net effect is dramatic. But we can't do this without having the treatment packages for them."

About 400 people in Darlington are undergoing treatment for addictions, most commonly heroin and methadone, with some amphetamine. Last year, the trust spent about £100,000 on methadone alone.

But officials fear that is just the tip of the iceberg and want enforcement to be backed with an education campaign and treatment.

Coun Dixon said: "We are trying to get people out of crime and into treatment.

"The next step will be to get them out of treatment and into work to make them useful members of society, which is better than locking them up."