Robbery figures defying trend

But overall, crime in the Northumbria Police area is still up by more than three per cent year-on-year.

A total of 139,130 crimes was recorded for the year ending in March, an increase from 134,777 in the previous 12 months. Robbery offences levelled off at 1,387, compared with 1,381 the previous year.

Police chiefs said they wished to reassure the public that "lawlessness was not on the increase".

The robbery figures are set against a rising tide of street crime nationally.

Yesterday, it was revealed that in the Avon and Somerset force area, which includes Bristol, robberies in the past 12 months had increased 77 per cent, with street attacks largely blamed on drugs.

Northumbria Police said they expected a move towards a national crime recording standard to lead to increases in national crime statistics.

The new standard, adopted by all forces this month, takes into account a wider range of offences, particularly minor assaults and criminal damage. This factor partly accounted for an increase by 2,772 in assaults year-on-year, largely in the less serious categories.

Other headline figures included a drop of 1.2 per cent in house burglaries, and a fall in thefts from cars, which were down by eight per cent.

Northumbria Police Chief Constable Crispian Strachan said: "We can assure the people of Tyne and Wear and Northumberland that lawlessness is not on the increase.

"People living in the region still have a much lower risk of falling victim to crime than in any other urban area."

During the past 12 months Northumbria Police detected 31.5 per cent of all crime and 69.5 per cent of violent crime.

Increased police activity aimed at cracking down on the illegal drugs trade netted £1.5m worth of drugs.

But police said such an emphasis led to an increase in drugs offences, set at 4,804, up 13 per cent.

Other forces in the North-East and North Yorkshire are preparing their annual crime figures for release in the next few weeks.