Police have issued a Christmas appeal warning residents about a new type of misdemeanour called mate crime.

Now, potential victims are being urged to shop their supposed friends for committing offences they might not be aware of - including bullying.

Mate crime is a type of hate crime which involves vulnerable people being bullied or manipulated by people they consider to be friends - and possibly peer-pressured into committing offences.

A series of 'mate crime'-awareness workshops are being held by an organisation called the North Kent Independent Advocacy Scheme (NKIAS), which offers advice to vulnerable people.

Canterbury PCSO Dan Mimran has been helping to highlight the crime.

He said: "Mate crime can happen to anyone, but children and adults with learning difficulties are especially vulnerable.

"Perpetrators make friends with someone but go on to abuse or exploit that 'friend'.

"This can be anything from low-level bullying to coercing the victims into handing over money or committing crimes."

The workshops are being funded by the National Lottery.

Director of NKIAS Louise Flatman said: "For vulnerable people to stop being victims of bullying, abuse and mate/hate crime they need to have the information to help them recognise when this is happening to them or their peers and to be confident to report any incidents.

"We want people to know that there is always something they can do" - Louise Flatman

"As we could not find any training specifically for vulnerable people we decided to set up our own tailor-made training workshops.

"The National Lottery has funded our project which allows us to deliver these workshops throughout the whole of Kent free of charge.

"We want people to know that there is always something they can do and there is always someone there to help them."

Police are also asking attendees if they want to become "Bully Beaters" -
where they can act as the police's eyes and ears to instances of bullying.

Louise added: "Their role is to look out for incidents of bullying, abuse or mate crime which may be happening to their friends or people they know and to report it to a nominated person."