PEOPLE in Cleveland are six times more likely to he searched by the police than residents in North Yorkshire, new figures reveal.

And people in Cleveland are more likely to be stopped than those living in London and other big cities in England.

Cleveland Police defended its widespread use of stop-and-search powers, insisting that only criminals have anything to fear.

It pointed to important arrests in Middlesbrough as recently as last weekend as evidence of how the policy is vital in the fight against crime.

The force spoke out after Home Office figures revealed that 30,175 stop and searches were carried out in Cleveland in the year to March 2003.

When the total is compared to the size of Cleveland's population, it means there were 6,378 stop-and-searches per 100,000 people.

The national average was only 1,941. Cleveland's figure was far higher than London (4,341), Merseyside (3,611), South Yorkshire (3,333) and West Yorkshire (3,006).

It dwarfed the number of stop and searches per 100,000 people in other parts of the region, which were North Yorkshire (1,020), Durham (1,078) and Northumbria (2,948) .

A Cleveland Police spokesman said: "We have always been proactive in carrying out stop checks, particularly in areas where there are problems with drugs.

"For example, last weekend a check in Middlesbrough uncovered more than £1,000 of heroin and another led to the arrest of a man wanted in Ipswich for rape."

The largest number of stop and searches in Cleveland were for stolen property (21,199), followed by drugs (4,274) and for carrying equipment to be used in a crime (2,269).

But only about one in 12 resulted in an arrest. There were 2,543 arrests in 2002-2003, with the majority for stolen property and drugs.