Met teams up with Romania in fight against child trafficking

The team, financed by the European Commission, will be based in Westminster - the scene of intense criminal activity involving children exploited by Roma gipsy gangs.

Police estimate that each child can earn the gangs up to £100,000 a year, and the trade in children is worth £1 billion a year in total.

It is estimated that at any one time about 1,000 trafficked children are taking part in Fagin-style criminal schemes on British streets. They are forced to beg, steal handbags and mobile phones, and pick pockets.

Some of the Roma gangs are also behind fake-ATM thefts in which millions of pounds are stolen by hijacking customers' card details.

The team of Met and Romanian officers and analysts will be aided by the UK Border Agency and the UK Human Trafficking Centre.

Since the country joined the EU in January last year, Romanian-linked crime in Britain has gone up by more than 700 per cent. Police raided 15 houses in Slough this year after an eight-month investigation codenamed Operation Caddy.

Of the 211 people occupying them, 33 were aged 10 to 17, and 74 were under 10. One month after the raids, pick-pocketing in Westminster had plummeted 160 per cent.

The children were rescued and some were handed back to their families while others were taken into care.

Westminster Superintendent Bernie Gravett stressed: "Of course it's not all Romanians who are here who are causing this problem. It's Roma exploiting Roma.

"The aim is to bring people to justice for human trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable members of the Roma community.

"We will be seeking to disrupt organised crime networks in any way, prosecuting key individuals here and in Romania. We will be tracing, seizing and confiscating criminal gains."

The project will also devise ways of rehabilitating and protecting children exploited by gangs.

Children being used for crime are taught a variety of techniques to steal credit cards, cash and phones. "Hugger muggers" specialise in singing and dancing to distract, before hugging their target and removing items from pockets. "Table surfers" enter pubs and restaurants and remove belongings left sitting on furniture.

Babies are also used to distract attention from would-be victims.

Police in Westminster first identified the problem in 2004. The gangs were well organised - children said they were under 10 to avoid prosecution. One girl, later proved to be 14, had been detained over 400 times.