Five prolific thieves responsible for more than 300 offences between them have been barred from shops in Bradford city centre.

The offenders have been named and shamed in a bid to drive them out of the city centre and allow law-abiding people to shop without fear of becoming crime victims.

The hard-hitting bans, the first of their kind, are the brainchild of City Centre Beat, a business crime partnership involving police, Bradford Council and retail businesses. The partnership has agreed to bar David Alan Braithwaite, Paul Hedley Kettlewell, Robert Jackson Murray Hill, Daniel Anthony Fallon and Saleem Akram from all its 121 city centre premises, as well as all shops in the Kirkgate Centre and Oastler shopping centre.

If they break the bans and commit further crimes they could face tougher penalties from the courts, including prison sentences and anti-social behaviour orders.

Inspector Steve Baker, City Centre Policing Inspector, said: "This is the first time this scheme has been used in Bradford and these five are the first to be banned. They were causing problems and we needed to do something about it so they didn't cause problems in the future. The main aim of the banning orders is to make these people aware they are not welcome in the city centre and make them known to the member premises.

"If they commit any offences now, the partnership will liaise with the Crown Prosecution Service and they will be taken to the courts for a more severe punishment."

The five men have been convicted of a total of 332 offences between them, mostly shoplifting. But Insp Baker said they could have committed up to ten times that number of crimes.

He added: "These are the first banning orders, but these five do not work alone. They know a lot of other criminals who come into the city centre to beg and shoplift.

"We hope those other people will get the message that we are prepared to use these powers as often as is necessary."

The banned men had been involved in drugs offences, anti-social behaviour, drunkenness, violence and begging, as well as theft. Their names came up when the partnership asked members who were causing them problems.

A City Centre Beat steering group voted to ban them and all five were personally served with letters informing them they were not welcome in the city centre.

Insp Baker said: "These people are prolific criminals. They were seen on a daily basis in the shops and on the streets, harassing the public and causing problems.

"They can be quite violent at times when confronted and it is quite intimidating for young shop assistants behind the counter when such people come in and steal things.

"The people of Bradford city centre deserve our support and if we can get some of these people to think twice we will have succeeded in reducing crime and making people want to come and shop here."

Catherine Riley, manager of the Kirkgate Centre, said Bradford was a safe place to shop but removing prolific offenders would make the city centre even safer and improve public's perception.

She said: "Shop theft is seen as a victimless crime, but everything the citizens of Bradford buy in city centre shops is far more expensive because of the cost of crime.

"One of these people is a prolific purse thief who targets elderly victims, so anyone who has older family are potential future victims. These people want to come in to the centre quickly and commit crime. We are not prepared to tolerate that."

Bradford Council's street warden service manager, Steve Longbottom, said: "We fully support what the partnership is doing. The financial cost of these crimes is difficult to quantify but you are talking very large sums of money."

He said Bradford suffered no worse than other town and city centres, but other places had more problems with travelling criminals.