Boys 10, 11 loot five businesses in regional NSW

Police have confirmed the crime spree at South West Rocks on Sunday morning was committed by two children who have since been dealt with under the Young Offenders Act.

Two boys - aged 10 and 11 - have been identified as the culprits of a crime spree in the coastal NSW town of South West Rocks, as debate continues over how to deal with the state’s youngest offenders.

The children were arrested after five businesses and hospitality venues were looted during the early hours of Sunday morning. Locals say cash, alcohol and clothing was stolen while shop fronts had to be boarded up after suffering damage.

CCTV shown to The Daily Telegraph shows the boys aggressively smashing windows with a hammer, before crawling through a broken window and looting a popular restaurant, Chop ‘n Chill. They fled the scene after triggering an alarm in another premises.

The owner of Chop ‘n Chill, Jacqueline Cudmore, said it was the sixth time her businesses had been targeted in recent memory. She estimated the break-in on Sunday morning cost her almost $10,000 - including lost earnings, wages, new windows and a replacement cash register. It could also impact her insurance premiums.

The two boys who stole money and damaged six different businesses are aged 10 and 11. Picture: Supplied

Ms Cudmore told this masthead: “we haven’t been able to open for two days because of this. There is so much frustration in town. The police are saying our hands are tied because of the laws. We live in such a beautiful place but this is definitely starting to have an impact on the town and our tourism.”

Police have confirmed the boys were arrested on Monday morning and taken to Kempsey Police Station, where they were “dealt with under the Young Offender’s Act.”

The Act allows police to manage and caution children who commit low-level offences which would otherwise be dealt with by the local court.

The minimum age for criminal responsibility in NSW is 10 years old. However - when a child is between 10 and 13, the legal system presumes they do not have a comprehensive understanding of their actions.

Michael Kemp, the MP for Oxley which includes South West Rocks said: “it is not okay to have kids this young commit these crimes. The Nationals are looking to introduce legislation to parliament to make children change their behaviour”

Police say the two boys have been dealt with under the Young Offenders Act.

In October, Superintendent Shane Cribb from the Mid North Coast Police District told a parliamentary inquiry that diversion programs for young offenders were necessary “for those that make that one-off, first-off mistake”

However he warned “those diversion programs need to be done at a very early age” as many children had “already got into that mould of crime.”