Helpful Jade has the certificate to prove it

By pjames herald reporter newsdesk@heraldexpress.co.uk

JUST like her 007 namesake, Jade Bond is not averse to the occasional good deed to help others.

The eight-year-old schoolgirl helped a street warden find the owner of a stray dog and stopped it being packed off to local kennels.

Helpful Jade, who attends Kings Ash Primary School in the resort, intervened and saved its owner having to pay out £75 to release it.

This week the bright spark was awarded a police certificate under the constabulary's reward scheme Motiv8.

Paignton and Brixham's Inspector Mel Broad presented the youngster with a certificate and £10 Capital bond voucher at the school.

Insp Broad commented: "Motiv8 is an excellent reward scheme that highlights the contribution that young people give to our community.

"It gives the police and our partners the opportunity to recognise, in a tangible way, good work and community spirit when displayed by young people.

"Jade has displayed an outstanding contribution to the community in Paignton by working with the Torbay Council Street Wardens.

"I would also like to thank the many companies who have donated prizes for the Motiv8 rewards."

Since the scheme was launched at the end of February more than 150 tickets have been given to young people by police officers, PCSOs and street wardens.

Young people have done a range of good acts from raising money for charity, helping to build a drop-in centre, passing information to the police and handing in lost property.

Motiv8 was inspired by Paignton teenager Kirsty Ogborne who suggested that police give out 'fixed penalty tickets in reverse to people seen doing good things'.

She submitted the idea to the police stand at Devon County Show in 2008, when the constabulary asked young people to come up with initiatives to promote good behaviour in the community.

Street warden Hayley Reed, who gave Jade an on-the-spot reward ticket, said: "If it wasn't for Jade coming over to tell me who the owner was, the dog would have gone to kennels for the night and it would have cost the owner £75 to get it released.

"Jade saved me a lot of time and enabled me to reunite the dog with its owner quickly. The information she gave me was really useful.

"Jade has just become a junior street warden and she will be an asset to us."