VICIOUS thugs are to be banished from Chatham town centre, thanks to an officer whose sole job is to clean up the area.

Detailed profiles of troublemakers are to be drawn up and the evidence used to prosecute them. If found guilty, they will be banned from the town.

Town centre manager Ron Morlham said the scheme was an important part of giving Medway people trouble-free shopping in a "pleasing, vital, dynamic and progressive" area.

He said: "It is really going to start saying to those people who want to come and chance their arm in the Medway Towns 'You try it - we are ready.'

"Something has to be done and it is being done.

"In the interest of Chatham town centre's future as a shopping experience for locals and visitors from miles around, this is just one of many things we are putting in place.

The intelligence-gathering post is one of two community officers to be appointed to help stamp out trouble. Mr Morlham, who took over as town centre manager 14 months ago, said: "We want people who are well-behaved, who do not come in and spoil everybody else's experience of enjoying their town centre."

Under a Home Office crime initiative, the officer will patrol the town centre and build up profiles of troublemakers. Armed with a computer, he will speak to businessmen and informants about thug-related incidents and record them. He will then liaise with police, local wardens and safety officers, businesses' own radio network and the CCTV camera control room at Medway Council's Civic Centre to build detailed profiles of those causing trouble.

The evidence will, it is hoped, lead to prosecution and banning from the town of trouble-makers.