A ROGUES gallery of yobs is to be created as part of Swindon's blitz on drink-fuelled violence.

Pub staff will use digital cameras attached to mobile radios to snatch photographs of troublemakers.

These will be sent instantly to licensees across town, and used to compile a list of hooligans who will be banned from pubs and clubs.

The idea is one of the first to emerge from the newly resurrected Pub Watch group.

Deputy chairman Jerry Silvester believes the cameras will be a vital tool in the fight to make the town centre safer.

He already uses one in his pub, the Riflemans in Regent Street.

All Pub Watch members are currently linked by handheld radios, which are used to warn other licensees about problems.

But these have limited use because staff can only give verbal descriptions of offenders.

Mr Silvester said: "Even just taking someone's photograph can be enough to stop trouble.

"People will soon stop misbehaving if you tell them they will not be able to get into any other pubs because we have their photograph.

"The cameras can store 10 pictures in their memory, and we will also have a connection to the town centre management office, where hardcopies will be printed off."

Around 20 licensees attended a meeting yesterday to relaunch Pub Watch, which folded seven months ago.

Landlords vowed to work with the police and Swindon Council to rid the town centre of the weekly routine of violence and disorder.

Mr Silvester said: "We need to wrest control of the town from the yobs.

"We have got the technology, let's use it."

Besides capturing violent drinkers, he has taken photographs of drug users sniffing cocaine in his toilets, rolling cannabis joints and opening wraps of heroin.

The cost of the cameras will come from subscription fees, and it is hoped every member will have one by the middle of next year.

Tamash Lal