Inside Justice Week is an initiative to make the criminal justice system in the UK more transparent. Liz Lamb spent the day with Cleveland Crown Prosecution Service to find out how criminals are brought to court.

KERB-CRAWLERS are a public menace in one part of the North-East. Prosecutors and police claim they encourage prostitution and blight the lives of innocent residents.

It has been an ongoing problem in the Teesside area for many years, but with new legal powers, courts are getting tougher on how they penalise offenders.

At Teesside Magistrates' Court, hundreds of men appear each year for kerb-crawling and because it is such a prominent problem in the area, magistrates now have the power to issue driving bans and seize cars belonging to offenders

Ian Bradshaw works for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and is in court to make applications for the driving licences of three offenders to be revoked.

Many of the men who appear before the magistrates for kerb-crawling are from outside the area but come to Middlesbrough in search of prostitutes.

Mr Bradshaw said: "There is a lot of public feeling about these cases. If you look at the addresses of these men, you will see a lot of them come from outside the area. It can be hard on residents."

It is the prosecutor's job to ask the magistrates if they will ban the kerb-crawlers from driving, but at today's hearing all the men keep their licences.

The first defendant to appear in court is James Knowles, of Station Road, Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

Mr Bradshaw tells the court the 22-year-old was found with a prostitute in April but, despite his representations, magistrates decide not to ban him because he needs his car for his job as a highways construction worker.

Care worker Stephen Brunton cries with relief when he is also told he will not receive a ban. The 30-year-old from Fawley, Southampton, tells magistrates his actions were completely out of character and he needs a licence for his job at a day centre.

The last application the prosecutor has to make is for David Milburn, of Anfield Place, Stanley, County Durham but that, too, is unsuccessful. The 38-year-old works as an HGV driver and pleads with the court not to ban him.

The CPS may not have got the result it wanted but all the men have been punished with fines and court costs.

Though the police are often the public face of the criminal justice system, the CPS works hard behind the scenes to ensure offenders are brought to court. Solicitors from the service will work with police from the initial stages of an investigation to an offender being charged and brought before a court. They will liaise with victims and represent the service in court.

A special case worker is also employed to work on complicated cases such as computer hacking and major drug conspiracies to ensure all the evidence has been supplied.

In the past, the public has been left mystified about what the CPS does, but chief Crown prosecutor Martin Goldman hopes that will change.

He said: "We want to go out there and meet organisations and groups and let them know who we are.

"We want to be answerable to the public."