ALMOST 120 crimes were committed by travellers in Cambridgeshire last year, according to police figures.

However, Cambridgeshire Police say they are only able to record the ethnicity if the offender or suspect “choose to give us this information”.

They add that the “accuracy of the information must not be relied upon for comparison purposes”.

The figures that are available, which were released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that 119 offences were committed by “Gypsy, Roma or traveller” people in 2011. There were 121 in 2010 and 91 in 2009.

More than a third of the recorded offences committed by travellers last year were theft. There were 10 common assaults and seven recorded instances of actual bodily harm.

Police had recorded 13 offences involving travellers possessing controlled drugs, nine criminal damage cases and six burglaries.

There were no recorded offences - where ethnicity had been declared as traveller - for attempted murder or possessing firearms in 2011.