MORE than 850 crimes were reported in Wrexham in just one month.

A Freedom of Information Request to North Wales Police revealed 858 crimes were reported by members of the public between August 1 and September 1.

When compared to crimes recorded on the online crime mapping tool ‘police.uk’ there appears to be a sharp spike in August.

There were more crimes reported in August than any other month so far this year with 719 recorded on the crime map in July, 599 in June and 597 in May.

Of the crimes reported in August, 291 related to theft and handling; 224 related to violence against a person and 199 related to criminal damage.

There were 10 reports of sex crimes, 35 drug related offences, 51 burglaries and eight robberies.

The most prolific ward for crimes reported was the Grosvenor ward with 84 offences, followed by the Brynyffynnon ward with 71 crimes and the Smithfield ward with 53 crimes.

There were 49 crimes recorded in the Offa ward and 47 in the Queensway ward in Caia Park.

Queensway ward councillor Carrie Harper said it was disappointing to hear her ward was in the top five.

“It’s not good to be in the top five, but I do know the police are doing everything they can,” she said.

“The figures are worrying, but my message would be that whatever the crime – criminal damage or a violent crime, then ring up and report it to the police.”

Crimes reported in the Queensway ward included 19 incidents of criminal damage and 10 incidents of violence against a person.

Cllr Harper added: “Obviously the violent crimes are the most worrying, but criminal damage is a problem and it does tend to happen in peaks and troughs, but what is good is that people are reporting these crimes.”

There were 42 reports of crimes relating to violence against a person in the Brynyffynnon and Offa wards combined.

But Brynyffynnon ward councillor Phil Wynn said the figures relating to the two wards were often “skewed”.

He said: “Unfortunately these statistics are often skewed when it comes to the Brynyffynnon and Offa wards because it includes Brook Street and the night-time economy in the town centre. But Offa Community Council is currently looking at the statistics.”

Wrexham town Inspector Alex Goss said it was not uncommon to see a spike during the summer months, but said he would need to study the figures thoroughly before commenting further.

Gerry Craddock, the Wrexham representative on the North Wales Police Authority, said there could be any number of reasons for a spike in crimes.

“There are sometimes spikes, it does go up and down tremendously,” he said.

“It’s usually a small amount of people committing a fair number of the crimes.”