CRIME in the Cherwell area is falling but robberies, assaults and thefts from people are all increasing.

Robberies shot up by 38 per cent, but this actually meant a rise from 32 to 44 offences.

Common assault was up 13 per cent and theft from people was up 19 per cent, between April 1 last year and March 31 this year.

But motor-vehicle theft, break-ins, domestic burglaries, bike thefts and wounding were all down on the previous year.

And local police revealed that they clear-up the highest proportion of crimes, compared to any other area in Thames Valley.

Last year 10,500 crimes were reported in the district of which 33 per cent were detected by officers.

Compared to other rural districts in Oxfordshire, Cherwell tops the list for the numbers of offences relating to criminal damage, theft from a person, common assault, wounding and robbery.

But Cherwell fared better on the numbers of thefts from motor vehicles and thefts of bicycles.

Cherwell local police area commander Supt Paul Emmings said crime as a whole in Cherwell was down by 1.5 per cent.

He said: "That's 150 crimes less than the year before. So crime went down and we detected more crime than anyone else."

Mr Emmings added key crimes affecting the public, such as vehicle theft and burglaries, fell by 3.3 per cent.

He said criminal damage, with 2,522 offences, was by far the biggest crime in the district.

Mr Emmings said: "That includes anti-social behaviour and criminal damage. That's the area we intend to tackle this year.

"When I came here in December 2004 all crime was up by five per cent and we detected 19 per cent of crimes. Now crime is falling and we detect 33 per cent. It's pretty good."

Mr Emmings said he believed key arrests had been made to tackle the problem of theft from people, after a spate of purse snatches in Banbury.

And he added the public had no need to worry about the percentage increase in robberies because the number of offences was so small.

Domestic violence is also a rising trend in the district, up by six per cent. But Mr Emmings said this was mainly due to more people deciding to report offences.

Mr Emmings said: "I am incredibly pleased about the detection rate.

"We are the highest performing and most improved area in the Thames Valley and that takes a lot of hard work."