MORE than 3,800 crimes were reported in Colchester town centre in the past year and 60 per cent of them resulted in no further action.

New figures published on crime site police.uk show of the 3,837 offences which were reported and have an outcome between October 2017 and September 2018 - the most recent data available - some 2,354 have resulted in no further action.

Of that number, formal action was not deemed in the public interest in 120 cases while in 1,577 cases, no suspect was identified after an investigation was completed.

Some 654 cases were labelled “unable to prosecute”.

 

Separately, 803 cases remain under investigation.

The most common crimes reported in the timeframe were antisocial behaviour, with 1,465 reports, and violent and sexual offences, with 1,371. Shoplifting accounted for 487 reports while there were 353 reports of criminal damage and arson.

Public order offences accounted for 352 reports while there were 59 reported robberies. The figures show of the total reported crime, in 289 cases, the offender was dealt with by police while 59 were given a caution. Some 171 cases were dealt with by a ‘local resolution’.

About 5 per cent of reported crimes – 206 – led to offenders being sent to court and just under 5 per cent of cases were dealt with at court.

There is a drop between the two numbers because three cases were unable to proceed once they reached court.

The figures are also broken down by month, with October last year showing the highest number, with 540 reports.

July in this year saw 527 reports of crime. August had 421 reports and September had 453 reports.

READ MORE: 50% of knife crime victims don't support prosecuting their attackers

Mike Lilley, Colchester councillor responsible for public safety said the issue had been raised by him with the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Probation Service.

He added: “We know this is an issue and it is something which must be corrected.

"A lot of the time, the issue is down to the CPS perhaps not having the staff to prosecute a charge at court after the police have put the evidence together.

“It’s not right and it is something we are strongly querying.”

He added both he and Essex Police have taken the issue up with Police and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst who has agreed to raise matters with the Home Office and Ministry of Justice.

Essex Police’s District Commander for Colchester, Shaun Kane, said: "Colchester is a safe place to live and work.

"More than 200,000 people live in the whole borough and, for every thousand of those people, fewer than nine will be the victim of crime.

"Unfortunately, there are a number of reasons why we may be unable to take crimes forward for further action.

“In some cases the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. For example, across Essex 50 per cent of knife crime victims do not support an investigation, and neither do 40 per cent of victims of substance attacks.

“It’s not impossible to get a conviction without the support of a victim but it does make it more difficult to get the case to court.

“My teams work diligently to try to find answers to every crime, and our end goal is always

to bring perpetrators to justice by taking them to court. Sadly, there are factors which can mean this just isn’t the case.”

He added: “I am confident my new dedicated policing team for the town centre will continue to show people in Colchester that our officers are on their side if they are the victim of crime.”

Overall crime across the policing district is also down by 6.8 per cent.