Capital's crime figures rocket

Your chances of falling victim to muggers, burglars, sex offenders or car thieves vary dramatically according to which borough you live in, today's figures show.

With street robbery rising by 38 per cent across the capital, the residents of Lambeth stand the highest chance of being mugged, 23.4 such offences being recorded per 1,000 population - a 37.8 per cent increase on the previous year.

Far safer, it seems, are those living in Richmond-upon-Thames, who enjoy the lowest robbery rates in London: just 1.8 offences per 1,000 residents.

Other boroughs with comparatively low levels of robberies include Kingston-upon Thames (2.1 per 1,000), Hillingdon (2.5), and Merton (3.3).

Second on the robbery list after Lambeth is Hackney, with a much lower 14.8 offences recorded per 1,000 residents, followed by Southwark with 12.9.

Lambeth residents also run the highest risk of being burgled, with an average 19.6 recorded offences per 1,000 population. Next comes Haringey, with 17 per 1,000 residents, followed by Islington with 16.6. Kingston-upon-Thames has the lowest burglary rates, with just 4.3 offences per 1,000 residents.

Despite the high profile of celebrity Rolex robberies in the borough, the well-heeled residents of Kensington and Chelsea run a fairly average risk of being robbed - there were 6.2 offences per 1,000 residents there in 2001/2002, an increase of 20 per cent on the previous year. Burglaries there dropped 26.7 per cent, down to 9.9 per 1,000 residents.

Neighbouring Hammersmith and Fulham had 8.1 robberies per 1,000 residents, an increase of 47.4 per cent, while burglaries there fell by 7.5 per cent to 12.1 per 1,000 population.

In Camden, residents have a fairly high robbery rate with 12 offences recorded per 1,000 population. Burglaries, too, are on the high side with 15.9 offences for every 1,000 residents.

Sex offences are up this year in most London boroughs - most notably Westminster, where there were 772 offences compared with 517 last year - a rise of 49.3 per cent. The City of London saw the biggest percentage rise - 230 - but it still has the lowest total figure owing to its small size.

Offences there rose from 10 to 33 - 5.2 offences per 1,000 residents.

Boroughs with the lowest levels of sex offences per 1,000 population were Harrow with 0.5, Richmond-upon-Thames, again, with 0.6, and Barnet, with 0.7.

Lambeth is one of the worst places in London for car crime - there were 3,054 stolen this year, an increase of 6.7 per cent. Thefts from cars rose by 23.8 per cent in the borough from 4,793 to 5,932.

But Camden was the worst borough for thefts from cars, recording a 17.2 per cent increase to 6,837, or 33.7 thefts per 1,000 residents.