Drunken yobs face two daily breath tests at police station

A tough new approach to tackling drunken yobs involving twice-a-day alcohol breathalyser testing could be rolled out across London.

Deputy mayor for policing, Kit Malthouse, said subjecting repeat offenders to testing, and locking them up for 24 hours if they failed, would also save money.

Mr Malthouse said: "Given that the new government wants to cut policing and prison costs, and at the same time tackle alcohol-related crime, insisting on self-financing, compulsory sobriety from offenders may be the only path to a vomit and blood-free high street on a Sunday morning."

Under the US system, pioneered in Dakota, people convicted of drink-driving and domestic violence would have to go to their local police station twice a day where they would be tested for alcohol consumption.

If they passed the daily tests they would remain free, but if they failed they would be locked up.

Mr Malthouse said safer neighbourhood policing teams could take on responsibility for the testing.

"I know that police would much rather spend their time preventing offending during the day than arresting violent young men at night," he said.

"The sanction is immediate and certain - straight into the cells, no argument, no court, no lawyers. And to cap it all, offenders were compelled to pay for their own testing rather than being fined. As well as keeping enforcement costs down, this was the money that they would otherwise have spent on hooch."

Home Secretary Theresa May plans to tighten the licensing regime to crack down on alcohol-fuelled crime that costs the police and health service £20 billion a year.