A POLICE force that forked out more than £125,000 in civil claims in just three months has blamed the massive figure on Britain becoming a more litigious country.

Between April 1 and June 30 this year Cleveland Police Force spent £125,369 settling 188 cases.

That's compared to just over £50,000 for the same period last year.

The figures, which include the cost of defending claims, were revealed in a police report presented to a meeting of Cleveland Police Authority in Middlesbrough Town Hall yesterday.

During the same period however, the number of complaints against the force dropped from 50 last year to 39 in 2002.

Police chiefs say this reflects a modern trend that sees more people than ever willing to sue public bodies.

Cleveland's acting deputy chief constable Della Cannings, presenting her report to the meeting, said: "This mirrors a trend in society in general that people want to seek compensation rather than make a complaint.

"The main increase in cases is in deliberate damage to property. This is mainly knocking down people's doors.

"Since we've had our Dealer a Day operation in Middlesbrough there have been more cases. If we raid a property and find nothing in there it seems eminently sensible to put that right.

"We need to look at a cheaper way of getting in other than breaking someone's expensive double glazing."

The figure is made up of claims from the public and officers suing their own force. These include false imprisonment, unlawful arrest, dog bites and council's claiming money for damage to their property during drugs busts.

Recent claims included an ex-officer who received £20,000 for hearing damage after using the gun firing range in the 1970s and a man who claimed the same amount after being assaulted by two officer - who subsequently resigned - in 1997.

In the same time period Durham Constabulary paid out £27,276 in civil claims while Northumbria Police coughed up £21,000 in the four months between March and June this year. North Yorkshire Police had no figures available.

MP for South Middlesbrough Ashok Kumar said: "I think there is a duty on the police authority to test the amount of claims being found against the police to see where they compare to police forces of a similar size.

"If Cleveland is paying out more that may be rooted in operational reasons and that needs to be examined."