TEENAGE pupils at a Bromsgrove school have discovered that the town is one of the most lawless places in Britain when it comes to 'white collar' crime.

The students at Chadsgrove School, in Catshill, found out that local figures for fraud and forgery have been running at more than double the average for the rest of the country.

The youngsters, whose school specialises in education for children with physical disabilities, were carrying out research into crime for their studies in citizenship when they noticed the trend after downloading Home Office statistics from the internet.

The figures showed that over a 12-month period, there were a total of 1,158 fraud and forgery offences committed in the Bromsgrove area - more than three offences for every single day of the year.

This represented 3.25 offences for every 1,000 people living in the town, compared to an average of only 1.5 for the rest of England and Wales. During the worst three-month period, the local fraud figure rose to 3.7 offences per 1,000 people.

"When we looked at the Home Office figures, we found that Bromsgrove was on or below the national average for every sort of crime including such offences as burglary, robbery, drugs, sexual crime and vehicle theft," said their teacher, Jan Mowbray.

"But it was a totally different story when we turned to the page dealing with fraud and forgery. The huge difference just leapt at us. It was staggering - but there was nothing to show what caused it."

The type of offences covered by fraud and forgery were said by the Home Office website to include company fraud, false accounting and using stolen or forged cheque and credit cards.

The students were startled by the increase in the offence rate for the Bromsgrove area.

"I am shocked to find that something like this is taking place in the area where we live," said student James White.

Another said: "It is worrying to think that this kind of crime is happening in a town like Bromsgrove, but the problem is that it is an easy thing to do."

The school's headteacher, Richard Aust, praised the students for their work.

"We offer all our pupils exactly the same opportunity to study subjects from the National Curriculum as young people in main stream schools and it is very gratifying when they make this type of progress," he said.