MORE than 500 violent and sexual offence crimes were reported in Basingstoke and Deane in a single month last year, figures show.

Data published by the National Police Chiefs' Council shows that a total of 519 violence and sexual offence crimes were reported in the town in November 2022, which are the most recent statistics available.

Of the 1,213 crimes reported during November in Basingstoke and Deane, 42 per cent fell into the category of ‘violence and sexual offences’.

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Of those reported in November, 356 are still being investigated by police.

For 152 of the crimes reported no action was taken, for various reasons including the police being unable to prosecute the suspect, no suspect was identified, or further investigation is not in the public interest.

Just five of the reported incidents are awaiting court action.

For two of the incidents the offender was cautioned and in one case a local resolution was found.

When comparing the statistics for violent and sexual offences reported in Basingstoke the previous year, there was a slight decrease from the 556 reported incidents in November 2021.

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Of these, no one was prosecuted for 455 of the incidents. Just three of the reported incidents led to court action, while for two of the incidents the offender was cautioned.

Hampshire Constabulary said: “Basingstoke is the largest town in Hampshire outside of the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth and therefore it is important that we put the numbers of recorded crime into context with the demands and areas of focus in each district.

“It is also important that an increase in reports should not necessarily be viewed as a negative because it can mean that there is an increase in public confidence resulting in more people reporting incidents to us.

“No action being taken can be for a number of reasons including a victim does not support a prosecution, where there is insufficient evidence to charge and bring an offender to justice or in a small number of cases where it is not in the public interest to prosecute a suspect, for example where an offender may be young or does not have the capacity to go to court.

“An example of this would be someone in a care home with dementia who has assaulted a carer or other service user. Senior officers always carry out a thorough review of investigations before a decision to take no further action is made. However cases can be reopened if more evidence becomes available.”