Crime in Beds may have gone down by 10 per cent over all in the last year, but the latest figures for Luton show a huge spike in the number of drug crimes.

Last month the county's police force announced crime overall had been reduced, with significant drops in violent crime and sexual offences.

Those figures, taken from the Home Office, showed 6,000 fewer crimes committed in the county in 2007/8 than the previous year.

But a look at the most recent set of figures for Bedfordshire Police's Luton division, from April to June this year, show rises in drug-related crimes, sexual offences, fraud and forgery, criminal damage and burglary, compared to the same period last year.

Drug crimes were up by nearly 75 per cent, and sexual offences were up by nearly 23 per cent.

A spokeswoman for Bedfordshire Police said the rise in drug crimes was due to a recent crackdown on suppliers.

She said: 'The number of recorded incidents has risen during the quarter due to the results of the National Drugs Campaign in May, when Bedfordshire together with other forces in the country mounted an operation to crack down on those who are responsible for drug-related crime.'

The spokeswoman said men looking for prostitutes made up the bulk of incidents under the sexual offences category. Also recorded were five rapes that had happened several years ago.

The crimes were 'still relatively low in terms of numbers', she added.

Bedfordshire Police

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