MORE crimes are being solved in Swindon than almost anywhere else of the country.

That is the view of Superintendent Richard Rowland, who is in charge of police operations in the town.

He was speaking after yesterday's crime figures showed offences were on the rise in Swindon.

New Home Office figures show violent crime was up by 40 per cent, sexual offences up by 22 per cent and robberies rose by 28 per cent.

However, Supt Rowland puts this down to a new way of recording figures, which means that every crime is taken into account, even if the victim does not wish to report it or there is not enough evidence to prove a crime.

He said the Wiltshire Constabulary, similar in size to Derbyshire and Norfolk, had by far the lowest figure for crimes per person.

He said figures which showed detection rates, when someone is arrested and charged, are well above the national average.

The figures show:

n Detection for burglary is 15 per cent of all offences committed, three per cent above the national average rate of 12 per cent.

n Violent crime is 54 per cent, four per cent up on the average of 50 per cent.

n Theft and handling stolen goods is four per cent up nationally, with 19 per cent in Swindon compared to 15 per cent.

Supt Rowland said: "We are recording crimes we never would have before, so that accounts for a large part of the increase.

"Through crime projects we are focusing our resources on a small number of people who we know are responsible for committing the majority of crimes."

Projects like Operation Defy centred on drugs crime and Operation Delta on burglaries.