JUST four criminals convicted by Gwent Police of possessing knives, guns or other weapons were sentenced to at least a year in prison in 2017.

Ministry of Justice statistics show that 74 people were found guilty in court of weapons possession offences last year. However only five per cent were handed prison time of 12 months or more.

In fact more offenders received a community order, 15 in total.

Weapons possession offences include having a gun, knife or bottle of acid in public, and more serious crimes include threatening someone with blades or firearms or taking them to schools.

Currently the minimum sentence is a community order and the maximum is four years’ imprisonment, depending on the severity of the offence. However in June new guidelines will come into place making the minimum sentence six months in jail.

In 2017 no one convicted of a weapons crime received the maximum four year jail term.

Out of the 120 suspects Gwent Police brought to court, 62 per cent were found guilty.

Of the total, 29 weapons trials were dealt with at crown court, indicating they are the most serious offences. The rest were seen at magistrates’ court where the maximum sentence is six months’ imprisonment.

Of those cases held at crown court, 52 per cent were convicted.

Patrick Green, chief executive of the Ben Kinsella Trust, a charity which aims to raise awareness about knife crime, said it was "important that we send a message that we are not going soft on offenders".

Ben was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in 2008 when he was just 16-years-old. His family set up the trust in his honour.

Mr Green continued: "The average custodial sentence for carrying a knife in Scotland is almost twice that of England and Wales. Knife crime is falling in Scotland and rising in England and Wales.

"But it’s critically important that we stop people carrying knives in the first place, we cannot police our way out of this.

"Education should be our first port of call and if offenders go on to carry knives there should be strong consequences. It is unclear from these figures whether that is the case."

Mr Green explained that the two strike rule meant that people caught with knives would only face a custodial sentence on the second offence.

"What the public want to see from non-custodial sentences is a low reoffending rate. The public needs to see that young people are not going to continue carrying knives."

Sexual offences was the crime group which had the lowest conviction rate in 2017 at 33%, with theft trials having the highest rate at 83 per cent.

The overall crown court conviction rate for Gwent Police was 58.5 per cent, with 584 out of the 999 suspects found guilty. That’s lower than the England and Wales average of 63.2 per cent.

This was higher than 2016 when 57.8 per cent of people were convicted.

The conviction rate for magistrates’ courts was higher at 83.3 per cent. Magistrates’ courts deal with less serious cases and do not have jury trials.