CRIME in North Yorkshire fell by 8.5 per cent in a year.

The drop came as total recorded crime across England and Wales fell by three per cent, according to quarterly crime figures released by the Home Office yesterday.

Robbery in the county soared by 58 per cent - compared with a rise of only one per cent nationally.

In North Yorkshire, the number of robberies went up to 84 between July 1 and September 30 2006, from 53 during the same period in 2005.

But North Yorkshire Police spokesman Tony Lidgate said: "This is a tiny figure considering that it is over three months in a county with 780,000 people.

"We do not feel the increase is a cause for alarm. It is more to do with the fact that there are more police officers and PCSOs on the streets than ever before and we are more accessible for reporting crime because of that."

He said robberies in the county tended to be a case of people being mugged - often for their iPods - and although the victims were threatened verbally, they rarely involved a weapon.

As The Press revealed last month, there was a huge drop of more than 18 per cent in violent crime in the county.

The number of violent incidents reported to police was down from 3,103 incidents to 2,539.

Police said one of the reasons for this was the changes to licensing laws - which had led to a huge drop in violent incidents in York city centre on Friday and Saturday nights.

Domestic burglary also fell, by just over one percent from 656 to 649.

The number of crimes overall during the same three-month period fell by 8.5 per cent, from 15,381 to 14,076.

Mr Lidgate said: "These figures are elderly, but they tell the same story that the county has been hearing for some time, which is that North Yorkshire has more officers and PCSOs on the streets and that is driving down crime.

"That is one of the reasons why this is such a good place to live."

Nationally, violent crime was down by one per cent and domestic burglary fell by three per cent.