Summer riots leave taxpayer with £133million bill

Lewis Whyld/PA Wire

The dust has settled, the flames long doused and the looters have hooked up their stolen plasma screen TVs to the Sky box, so now all that's left from the riots of last month is for the courts to lock up the last few stragglers while the rest of us count the cost.

And that cost is £133million.

Of that figure, the majority of around £120million is the cost of policing what proved to be a series of events that proved a bigger attraction than any of the summer music festivals. It's a pity there wasn't more organisation and tickets on sale.