Burglary, violence, drugs, and vehicle theft are crimes which all increased in a market town in recent months. 

Between December 2020 and February 2021, Chesham saw a 17 per cent rise in commercial burglaries, a 12 per cent rise in violence, a nine per cent rise in drug offences, and a 10 per cent rise in vehicle theft when compared with the previous year.

The data was revealed by Thames Valley Police (TVP) during a Chesham and Villages Community Board.

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Rural areas were the main targets for business burglaries, according to a council document.

Drug offences went up due to increased police operations, the report also states.

A police operation to crack down on drugs had seen some London-based dealers arrested, according to TVP, as well as vehicles and large sums of cash seized.

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Residential burglaries, weapons possession, theft from a vehicle, and serious injury against a person were all down during the same period.

Burglaries in Chiltern as a whole decreased by 60 per cent, it was also reported.

“We are working on preventing burglary and theft within our rural communities and we are actively promoting County Watch,” a TVP spokesman said.

“New marking tamper-proof material has been purchased and we will be looking at distributing this new crime prevention material within our rural communities.”

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