WEST Mercia Police have welcomed a fall in crime revealed by new Home Office figures.

The statistics show there were 2,752 fewer offences in the force area in the year up to September 2000 than in the previous 12 months.

This represents a fall of 3.3 per cent in West Mercia, well above the national reduction of 0.2 per cent.

Deputy Chief Constable Peter Neyroud said: "We're particularly pleased that the downward trend in domestic burglaries across the area is continuing. Nearly 1,500 fewer people suffered such attacks on their homes and businesses compared with the previous year - a reduction of 10.4 per cent in these offences."

Car crime is also down, as are assaults, sex offences, theft and handling stolen property. Although the number of robberies has risen, the level of such offences is still low compared to other areas.

The figures for crime in the Malvern Hills and Herefordshire areas have also been released, but without a year-on-year comparison.

The figures show that in the year up to September 2000, there were 261 offences of violence against the person in Malvern Hills and 1,076 in Herefordshire - a rate of 3.5 and 6.4 per 1,000 people respectively.

There were 66 sexual offences in Malvern Hills and 38 in Herefordshire (0.9 and 0.5 per 1,000).

The number of robberies in Malvern Hills was 14 and 38 in Herefordshire (0.2 and 0.2 per 1,000).

There were 176 house burglaries in Malvern Hills, which works out to 2.4 per 1,000 people or 5.8 per 1,000 households. In Herefordshire, the figures were 632 (3.8 and 9.3)

There were 97 thefts of motor vehicles in Malvern Hills (1.3 per 1,000 people) and 389 in Herefordshire (2.3).

And in the same period there were 376 thefts from motor vehicles (5.1) in Malvern Hills and 1,533 (9.2) in Herefordshire.