THE chief constable of North Yorkshire Police has asked officers to help keep costs down - by driving more carefully.

Over nine months last year, the police had to pay out £172,000 on repairs to vehicles as well as for legal damages, with the force's chief saying that officers were partly to blame.

Between April 1 and December 31, the repairs bill for the force's police vehicles came to £117,436.

The force also paid out £49,555 in damages following accidents, and £5,013 in legal costs.

During the nine months, there were 433 incidents involving police vehicles, prompting Chief Constable Della Cannings to appeal to officers to keep the cost of repairs down by taking more care on the county's roads.

She told a meeting of North Yorkshire Police Authority's complaints committee that officers were partly to blame for the large bill.

She said: "We are aware of the financial costs that relate to vehicle damage. While I appreciate that things like windscreen repairs are often unavoidable, we do have incidents, which are all fully investigated, that are caused by the manner of the drivers.

"We need to make sure that we bring about improvements to reduce the risk of injury or damage, and bring down costs that could be avoided."

She said all officers had been made aware of the costs and had been asked to take extra care.

Between April 1 and December 31 last year, there were 109 accidents involving a single police vehicle and 108 crashes between two vehicles, at least one of which was a police car.

Police vehicles were involved in seven accidents which involved three or more cars.

The force had to replace or repair 32 windscreens and there were 30 incidents of criminal damage. In 114 cases, officers returned to find a car damaged.