POLICE officers in Colchester solved crimes at a better rate than the national average, according to research.

Figures show close to one in five crimes committed in 2017 ended with the offender being caught, prosecuted and punished for their actions.

Analysis of statistics which has been released by the Sunday Times said there were 14,756 crimes in the Colchester borough last year.

Of those, 1,630 have now been solved.

A total of 9,884 have been categorised as unsolved while the remaining 2,784 could not be labelled because they are still pending or going through the court system.

The figures are based on information from crime figures submitted by forces all over the country at data.police.uk cross referenced with information from the Ministry of Justice and reveal 11 per cent of crime in Colchester was solved last year.

The rate is above the national average of nine per cent.

Crimes in the town centre were solved at a better rate than overall.

Successful prosecutions were brought in 390 of the 2,122 crimes reported - a total of 18 per cent, although 60 per cent of the incidents still remain unsolved.

But just two crimes were solved in the neighbourhood off Berechurch Hall Road, Colchester, last year.

The figures show there were 143 crimes recorded in the road and the estates between there and Mersea Road in 2017 but less than two per cent have been solved.

Essex neighbours Uttlesford boast the best crime solving figures in the country with a success rate of more than 26 per cent.

The worst solved rates in the country come from Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire and South Buckinghamshire where the rate is as low as four per cent.