CRIME has fallen across the board in Cambridgeshire, figures published today have revealed.Statistics released by the Home Office for 2007/08 show that, compared to 2006/07, offences of robbery, burglary, violence against a person, vehicle crime, theft,

CRIME has fallen across the board in Cambridgeshire, figures published today have revealed.

Statistics released by the Home Office for 2007/08 show that, compared to 2006/07, offences of robbery, burglary, violence against a person, vehicle crime, theft, fraud and forgery and criminal damage have all fallen in the county.

However, there were rises in the number of recorded sexual offences and drug offences for the same periods.

The total number of offences fell by six per cent to 65,308, which equates to more than 4,000 fewer crimes.

Other significant reductions were recorded in burglary, where offences fell by 15 per cent to 7,533 offences, which equates to more than 1,300 fewer crimes; robbery, where offences also fell by 15 per cent to 624, which equates to more than 100 fewer crimes; and fraud and forgery, where offences fell by 20 per cent to 2,186, which equates to more than 500 fewer crimes.

Drug offences rose by 37 per cent to 2,904 and sexual offences rose by five per cent to 752.

However, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hopkins said the increase in recorded drugs offences reflected the force's proactive approach to tackling dealers.

And this was backed up by the force's detection rate for drugs offences, which remained at just under 98 per cent, but equates to 2,828 detections compared to 2,072 the year before.

The overall detection rate was 27.1 per cent, compared to 24.8 in 2006/07 - effectively an increase in crimes detected of more than 500.

Mr Hopkins said: "It is very pleasing to see reductions in the majority of offences and the figures reflect the hard work that is going on across the force's divisions.

"We've also made real progress in detecting crime, with the latest figures showing that we've doubled our detection rate since 2003.

"However, we know these figures will not be of comfort to those people who were a victim of crime last year and efforts will continue to reduce crime further and bring those responsible to justice."

He added: "The rise in recorded drug offences shows how proactively we are tackling the issue in Cambridgeshire. There is a lot of information coming in from members of the public, officers are taking action and I hope this positive work continues.