AN EX-PRISONER who has made controversial claims about West Yorkshire’s gang culture says Huddersfield is a hotbed for more organised crime.

Steve Hackman – not his real name – has written a book about the “explosion of gang crime” in Britain after spending a year in two prisons for drug dealing.

The 26-year-old said he penned Young Guns to draw attention to a problem he claims has infiltrated virtually every town and city.

The book includes chapters dedicated to Leeds, Bradford and Halifax – even Brighouse, Elland and Rastrick have problems with guns and knives, he claims.

Huddersfield is not mentioned in the book, but Hackman said the town had its own problems.

“From what I have heard, Huddersfield has a few little street gangs, but more of the problems are with organised crime,” he said.

“One of the first people I met in jail was a guy from Deighton who had been an addict since he was 10 and had been selling heroin since then.

“I met a guy who was in for murder and others for armed robbery. There seems to be more of a problem with drug dealing than with the street gangs that fight over territory.”

Hackman was studying English at Leeds University when he was arrested after selling ecstasy to an undercover police officer in 2008.

He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years, but served just over a year in prisons in Leeds and East Yorkshire.

During his time, he encountered prisoners who boasted about their involvement in gangs and was surprised to find gang culture had “infiltrated almost every corner of society.”

That fact was illustrated by an encounter he had with a man who had ‘HX5’ tattooed on his back, indicating membership of the Elland postcode gang.

He was told that other gangs included the Elland Mad Dogs and Elland Bongheads.

But the HX5 member told him: “Our firm run Halifax.”

The gang’s main rivals were Halifax’s HX2 crew.

Hackman recalls the man telling him: “Come to Elland and you will see guns, knives, knuckle dusters and nanchucks.

“If you’re from HX2 you’ll be lucky to come out alive.”

Samurai swords, machetes, bats and hockey sticks were other tools of the trade. But the young inmate claimed things were much worse in Brighouse, where gangs were notorious for using “shooters.”

According to the book, Brighouse gangs also fought with those from Rastrick.

Hackman writes: “Large groups of youths regularly fight with each other, sometimes unarmed, sometimes using knives.”

The author told the Examiner his descriptions of problems in Calderdale were to illustrate a wider issue.

He said: “I’m not trying to make Elland out to be South Central Los Angeles.

“I’m merely using it to illustrate the fact that everywhere has an underworld and that gangs are slowly taking hold in every town and city in England.

“I’ve been to Elland and it’s probably a very pleasant place to live judging by what I’ve seen of it. All I’m saying is that everywhere has its bad side and that it’s naive to think that there are places where serious crime doesn’t exists.”

West Yorkshire Police would not comment on Hackman’s claims.

But Brighouse councillor Howard Blagbrough said they were exaggerated.

He said: “Quite a few years ago there was a problem with rival football fans congregating in Brighouse to cause trouble. Since the town has been developed, it has become a lot calmer.

“The claims sound far-fetched to me.”