Thousands of gypsy children brought to Britain to work as pickpockets, warns MP

Tory Anthony Steen (Totnes) said the children were brought to Britain for the express purpose of committing crimes and "milking" the benefits system.

Sold for up to £20,000 each, they were "debt bonded" to criminal gangs and could net as much as £100,000 a year, he claimed.

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He warned it was a new "phenomenon" in Britain which was approaching "siege" levels but which no one had grasped the significance of yet.

Mr Steen called for a new offence of "criminally exploiting others" and for the children concerned to be treated as victims of crime and repatriated with the support of reputable child organisations.

He was speaking in a Westminster Hall debate after last month's high-profile rescue by police of 10 children from a so-called "Fagin's Gang".

The children were taken into care after officers raided 17 addresses in Slough, Berkshire. Nine have since been reunited with their families who live in the UK.

Police believe the children were being held by organised criminal gangs from Eastern Europe and being forced into a life of crime.

Opening the debate, Mr Steen told MPs: "What is happening is that organised criminal networks are trafficking Roma children into Britain and other EU countries, notably Italy and Spain, and using them to milk the benefit system and undertake criminal activities such as shoplifting, pick-pocketing and ATM theft."

The Metropolitan Police estimated up to 2000 Roma children have already been trafficked into the UK, he added.

"None of them go to school, they are not on social services databases, they aren't cared for by foster parents, they are completely under the radar."

Meanwhile, Romanian nationals accused of crime in Metropolitan Police areas had soared 786% since 2006 and Bulgarian nationals by 250%.

"These gangs are buying children and schooling them in art of street crime," Mr Steen alleged.

"The twist is that many of these children are under 10-years-old and have no criminal liability in this country."

Mr Steen continued: "This is an entirely new form of trafficking because although the children are often with their own family, their family is mortgaged - debt bonded to the criminal gangs.

"The families sell their children for cash and the child is expected to pay off that debt by crime.

"We have hundreds - but no doubt in time thousands - of these kinds of families in Britain whose sole aim is to milk the benefit system and steal on the streets."

Mr Steen claimed London was "a sitting duck" for Roma-organised crime and that it was spreading throughout the regions.

"Intelligence has been received that children and adults are being sold between the gangs in the UK as well as being trafficked into the UK - evidence of sales for amounts of between £20,000 for one or more persons including babies and very young children," he said.

"Intelligence has also been intercepted that reveals a criminally active child can earn approximately £100,000 per year for the organised criminal network that controls her or him."