Gypsy children 'smuggled in to work for modern Fagins'

AS many as 2000 children of Roma gypsies have been trafficked into the UK to be schooled in the art of street crime by modern-day Fagins, the Government was warned today.

Tory Anthony Steen, MP for 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.

He warned it was a new "phenomenon" in Britain which was approaching "siege" levels.

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 debate after last month's high-profile rescue by police of ten 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.