Career criminals with more than 100 previous convictions are being spared jail, it has been revealed.

According to the Telegraph, offenders with more than 50 previous convictions have avoided prison in more than 50,000 cases since 2007.

During the past 17 years offenders have avoided prison in more than 40,000 cases.

An average of five offenders a week have been spared jail in each year during the last decade.

Furthermore, the proportion walking free from court has quadrupled in the last 17 years.

The number of career criminals avoiding jail has nearly tripled from 1,289 in 2007 to 3,325 in 2023.

This comes after Yvette Cooper warned that a soft approach to justice has allowed too many people to "feel as through crime has no consequences".

This also follows a police inspectorate saying that the Metropolitan Police is failing in almost all its areas of work.

Is Britain too soft on crime?

The force was assessed across nine areas and graded as "requires improvement" or "inadequate" in seven - including investigating and preventing crime.