Youth gangs behind Victoria’s aggravated burglary crime wave

Some of Victoria’s worst young crims are on double-digit sets of bail after being repeatedly detained by police and released.

Dozens of the young offenders driving the state’s wave of aggravated burglaries have been arrested more than 10 times in the past year.

The Herald Sun has been told the worst of the young crims – many whom do it for fun or notoriety rather than monetary gain – are on double-digit sets of bail after being repeatedly detained by police and released.

The youths, aged between 12 and 24, are among more than 600 on a statewide youth crime watchlist. Those listed – among them a core of 280 recidivist offenders – are monitored by officers attached to Operation Alliance, which runs across Victoria.

It is believed one boy who has come under scrutiny as part of another special police operation code-named Bird is on 12 sets of bail.

Bird has been working to curb the level of aggravated burglaries by youth gangs in the southern suburbs by sending out 10 police units a night patrolling for troublemakers.

That work comes as the state government prepares to lift the age of criminal responsibility to as high as 14.

Some police are concerned that will open up a greater field of young people able to offend without being charged, potentially exposing them to exploitation by older offenders.

Police say they are confronting a new generation of youth offenders with no fear of consequences, and that would not improve if the age of responsibility was raised.

“Why wouldn’t you keep doing stuff that’s fun? They’re doing it for the social media notoriety,” one investigator said.

Another officer told the Herald Sun the amount of work put into the young ­offenders was a drain on other elements of police work.

The youths often do not offend in their own areas and think nothing of crossing Melbourne in stolen vehicles to commit crimes on the other side of town. “Touch wood, no one’s been killed yet,” one investigator said. “They steal the cars, commit crimes in them, then dump the cars.”

Their driving – commonly in powerful European cars – is often dangerous, weaving in and out of traffic at high speed on major roads. Police are usually unwilling to do more than monitor from a distance or the air because those behind the wheel are unlicensed and with little driving experience outside video games.

Social media has lent them a new level of communication and the forum on which to brag about their exploits. “I’ve never seen youth crime like this. You’d say it’s an epidemic,” one investigator said.

In the year to September 2022, there had been 164 aggravated burglaries committed by children aged 10-14, up from 91 the year prior.

The number of aggravated burglaries is also up on pre-pandemic levels, with just 60 offences recorded in the year ending September 2018.

Police believe they are making headway with some of those on their radar.

Almost 150 of those on the Alliance watchlist severed ties with gang life last year and one-third did not reoffend.