FAR fewer people are being caught breaking antisocial behaviour orders in Oxfordshire than across the rest of the country.

New figures showed that of 55 Asbos given to people in Oxfordshire between 2000 and 2005, only 19 were charged with breaching the orders - a rate of 34 per cent.

In Oxford the proportion is lower: 41 Asbos made with 13 breaches, or 31 per cent.

That compares to a national and Thames Valley average of 47 per cent.

Police put that down to what they described as a better targeting of Asbos against only the worst offenders.

PC Mike Ellis, Thames Valley Police's antisocial behaviour co-ordinator, said: "We use a number of other tactics before we give an individual an Asbo.

"We will provide personal visits, support, mediation and acceptable behaviour orders. It means we are targeting people deeply entrenched in antisocial behaviour when we give out Asbos.

"These people will not change their behaviour overnight so on a number of occasions Asbos will be breached. However, because of the level of support and contact with individuals, a significant number are not breached."

Asbos are orders forbidding people from either continuing behaviour which annoys or frightens other people, or bans them from a specific area.

Punishable ultimately with a five-year prison sentence, they have been used for a variety of problems, from nuisance neighbours to joyriders, prostitutes and drug dealers. Under 18s can be jailed for up to two years.

However Tony Baldry, Tory MP for Banbury, said: "Asbos can be a useful weapon in the fight against antisocial behaviour if they are properly enforced. These statistics show this is blatantly not the case and reduce Asbos to little more than a gimmick, designed to get a good headline rather than address a serious problem."

But Labour said the orders were empowering communities to fight the social menace of nuisance behaviour.

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said the number of breaches did not detract from the overall success of Asbos.

He said: "It's important to remember that breaching an Asbo is itself a criminal offence, so further action is taken.

"Asbos are a vital weapon against the menace of anti-social behaviour, and have helped communities in Oxford which have suffered thuggish and intimidating behaviour."

The Government has urged local authorities to issue more Asbos, pledging more special courts where cases are fast-tracked and greater protection for witnesses and victims.

Louise Casey, the 'respect tsar', said last month that high breach rates were no surprise.

She said: "The figures show that kids who breach Asbos breach everything else as well. It is not the failure of the Asbo, it's a failure to control that young person."

A Home Office spokesman said: "What the breach rate shows is that Asbos have teeth and that if people don't abide by them there are serious consequences that are spelt out in court."

About 55 per cent of adults who breached an Asbo were immediately jailed, he added.

In 2005 Henry Lenton, then 19, was jailed for three months for breaching his Asbo. Lenton had been given an Asbo in March 2005, stopping him from threatening and intimidating people in the Barton area.

He had plagued the estate by stealing vodka, kicking a policeman and smashing glass panels in a door.

He had breached his Asbo by entering Risinghurst Post Office, stealing cider and being abusive to the shopkeeper.