TWO teenage suspects stayed in an hotel at a cost of up to £900 a night when all secure accommodation in England and Wales was full.
Social services had to hire rooms in a Travelodge for the 14-year-olds after a nationwide search for spaces in secure premises, The Times has been told.
The teenagers were also provided with a full programme of activities during the day including visits to parks, sports and activity centres. They had been remanded in secure accommodation after appearing before magistrates in Leeds.
One teenager spent three nights at a Travelodge in Leeds and the other stayed for a night before spaces were found in secure premises. They are now in a privately run secure training centre.
The bill for the hotel accommodation, including security staff with the boys, is estimated at £3,640 and is to be paid by council taxpayers in Leeds. The boys had a double room with en suite bathroom, direct-dial telephone, colour television and coffee and tea-making facilities.
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Usually a room would cost about £60 a night but the cost of keeping the boys in the hotel was so high because they were accompanied round the clock by two escorts and provided with activities.
The escorts from a private security company remained with the teenage suspects at all times including at night to ensure that they did not escape. One youth was in the hotel for three nights from July 6 and the other teenager spent a night there six days later on July 12.
Leeds social services turned to Travelodge, which boasts a comfortable bed for the night without “paying the earth for it” when a search found that every bed in local authority secure accommodation and privately run secure training centres was being used.
Leeds City Council said that it cost about £910 for every night each offender spent in the hotel. It said that the reason the costs were so high was that each offender had two escorts at all times.
An official said: “A programme of daytime activities is put together including visits to parks, activity centres and sports centres to keep the young person engaged. Under no circumstances do they remain simply waiting in the hotel”. She refused to give details of which Travelodge in Leeds was used on the ground that it could lead to the potential identification of the youngsters.
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It appears that Travelodge was not informed when the bookings were made that the teenagers had been charged with offences.
Rosemary Archer, the Director of Social Services in Leeds, defended the decision to use hotel accommodation for the teenagers.
“We did everything possible to find secure accommodation for these two young people. On each occasion a countrywide search for a placement was unsuccessful due to the massive demand for remand places these days.
“This situation is, however, very rare and we understand that in the future there will be more secure beds available” She said that they had considered sending one teenager back to his parents’ home with a 24-hour escort but it would not have been a safe option. “We agree that this is a far from satisfactory situation but every route open to us was explored without success,” Ms Archer added.
An official at the Youth Justice Board, which commissions secure accommodation for young offenders and suspects, said that the decision to use hotels to detain the two teenagers was only a last resort. She added: “There was no disruption in the hotel at all. No one staying in the hotel had any reason to be concerned. It was all done very quietly”.
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The Youth Justice Board commissions 235 beds from local councils for suspected or convicted teenage criminals and in July had another 194 places in three privately run secure training centres.
It costs an estimated £500 a night to keep a child in local authority secure accommodation and £445 a night in a secure training centre.
The Youth Justice Board and Leeds City Council refused to say what crimes the 14-year-olds were charged with.
Travelodge said that if the rooms had been booked by telephone there would be no reason for it to be told that the youngsters had been charged with a crime.