THE number of teenagers found guilty of carrying knives in Greater Manchester has rocketed to one of the highest totals in the country.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw told MPs the number of 10 to17-year-olds in the area found guilty since 1997 of illegally carrying knives has increased by more than 300 per cent from 21 a year to 88.

He has also said in the Commons that the number of convictions of people over 18 found guilty of illegally carrying knives has risen dramatically from 181 a decade ago to more than 300 - the second-highest total outside London.

The statistics follow Gordon Brown’s vow to crack down on knives and also his plans to ban some lethal hunting knives.

Only folding penknives are excluded from the knife laws, with a question mark over knives used by some professionals including butchers and fishermen.

Over the past 10 years the number of 10 to17-year-olds convicted in courts in Greater Manchester for illegally carrying knives has risen steadily to the highest total of anywhere outside London.

And, according to the Ministry of Justice, there has been a similar steady increase since 1997 in the number of defendants over 18 convicted for illegally carrying knives in Greater Manchester.

Source from Manchester Evening News

This section of the blog is going to be dedicated to bringing you kind thoughts and advice from the Founder and CEO of 3Dkids Darius.

To find out more about Darius and to send him a message please see the ‘Meet the Team’ section of the website.

IT was while on holiday in Dubai that Darius Soudi’s new business venture be- came crystal clear. The Iranian-born business- man has launched his latest company 3DKids. The Cheadle-based business, which should turnover around £350,000 in its first year of trading, uses 3D photographic technology to etch images into crystals. It has won several contracts with schools and the UK’s big- gest nursery groups, including Busy Bees, for crystals blocks and key rings which feature im- ages of children. Darius says he got the idea while on holiday in Dubai with his three children, and invested in the technology to launch the idea in the UK. He says: “We go into schools and nurseries and take images of the children, then transfer them on to the crystals. Around 70 per cent of parents buy them and 10 per cent of the revenue goes to the school.” Darius, who came to the UK at the age of 14 with his parents, has also got a number of orders from football clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, which are selling the crystal blocks with pictures of team players and club em- blems at their superstores. The 41-year-old spent several years in sales before launching afour-strong spa chain, Urveda, in Cheshire and Greater Man- chester with his ex-wife. He sold the business 18 months ago. Darius says with 12 million youngsters in the UK, there is huge potential for the 3DKids concept to expand and grow, and he is now planning to roll out the business nationwide on a franchises basis. It’s all crystal clear Etchings of kids are a big hit for schools

Interview by SHERYL MOORE for the Manchester Evening News