Defence lawyer and MP Mark Pettingill will push for longer sentences for gang members when the House of Assembly reconvenes next month.Mr Pettingill hopes his amendment to the Criminal Code will land proven gangsters with up to ten years longer behind bars when they’re convicted of a serious crime.He revealed his plans in response to a new poll, which lists crime as the number one issue of concern for voters in Bermuda.The poll, conducted by Mindmaps, saw 400 Bermuda residents aged 18 years and older quizzed by phone between January 10 and 19.Asked what the biggest issue facing the Island is, 46 percent said it was crime, 33 percent said it was the economy and unemployment, and seven percent cited education.Mr Pettingill, who is a Bermuda Democratic Alliance MP, said: “We’ve got skyrocketing crime, crime we’ve not seen happen to that extent before. Government hasn’t legislated anything to do with crime. We’ve got to have pro-active measures with regards to social progress, but that’s never going to happen overnight.“I’m a defence lawyer and I will carry on defending people in court but I am planning [to put] a bill before Parliament. It’s adding an increased penalty for being a member of a gang.“What it says is if you’re involved in a criminal gang or organisation and that will be defined that will incur an additional sentence. Right now we are establishing in court that people are gang members. If that’s proven and accepted then that will incur an increased sentence.”Mr Pettingill said the move would add up to ten years to the sentence meted out for the crime the gangster has been convicted of. He noted that similar legislation is already in place in Canada, the USA and the UK.He plans to bring the bill to the House after the Budget debate.Giving his reaction to the survey, Governor Sir Richard Gozney said: “Popular concern at crime is natural and understandable. The public in Bermuda are bound to remain concerned about crime, not least because large drugs seizures, as well as the court appearances of gun crime suspects, are reported in the media almost every week. Burglaries are also a concern.”However, he said: “The fact that drugs are being seized, at the airport and at sea, and the fact that gun crime suspects are regularly in court, are signs of some progress. I note that last year over half the poll respondents named crime as their main issue. This year crime remains the biggest concern but the percentage of those polled who cite crime as their main issue has fallen to just under half. We seem to be moving in the right direction.”Sir Richard added: “No-one is complacent: there is still a great deal more to do. All the law and order agencies and the courts are conscious of that, and remain committed to the fight against crime on this Island.”Michael Dunkley, Shadow Minister of Public Safety said: “People still consider crime to be the Island’s biggest issue because it is. There is no greater threat to our way of life, and we think the consistency of concern across all demographics in the survey illustrates that point.“We want to congratulate the police for recent successes in terms of arrests, prosecutions and recovery of weapons, but that is only one aspect of a deep societal problem which will require a more comprehensive response to get managed down to acceptable levels.“The most positive side to the crime issue today is the strong understanding and awareness of the threat posed by gang-related violence and this bodes well for unified community action, which can be the difference.“The rest of the people polled named housing, tourism, corruption and poor fiscal management, racism and Independence as their main concerns. The margin of error was 4.9 percent.