CRIME in Huntingdonshire has fallen by more than 10 per cent but burglaries and vehicle crimes have increased, according to the latest figures.

The annual crime statistics show that the number of crimes in the district dropped from 8,102 between April 2011 to March 2012 to 7,259 last year.

However, it isn’t all good news for Cambridgeshire police as break-ins were up 20 per cent – from 474 in 2011/12 to 583 last year – while vehicle crime increased 10 per cent (the equivalent of 75 offences) year-on-year.

The increase in burglaries has long been identified as a problem in Huntingdonshire and Chief Inspector Melanie Dales announced in her Hunts Post column at the beginning of the month that she had formed a dedicated burglary team.

Chief Insp Dales said: “I have a newly structured burglary team who will be attending burglaries from the very outset and need to achieve a 20 per cent detection target. This ‘all in one service’ led by those experts will allow us to identify trends and pick up on investigative opportunities from the very outset.”

She also increased Huntingdonshire officers’ targets for detecting violent crime to 60 per cent and for detecting all crime to 32 per cent (up from 30 per cent).

Officers have issued warnings to Huntingdonshire residents following an increase in burglaries. Last week Dave Griffin, community safety/crime reduction officer for Huntingdonshire, warned that properties in the A1 corridor were particular targets.

And on Monday St Ives officers said that eight homes had been broken into in the last two weeks – three in Houghton, two in Upwood, and one each in Somersham, Pidley and Warboys. Stolen items included jewellery, cash, small electrical items, iPads and laptops.