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A national organisation has called for more measures to tackle business-related crime. “The true extent of business crime is not reflected in official figures as many firms have effectively opted out of the criminal justice system,” said Federation of Small Businesses spokesman Russell Lawson, continuing: “Businesses also state that one of the barriers to reporting crime is that the process is too time consuming.

A building site conflagration that threatened properties in the area over a weekend involved retirement flats, the fire service believed. Crews said the Basingstoke building, 100 metres (328ft) by 200 (656ft), was well alight when they arrived. Burning wooden embers from the building and the prevailing wind conditions put a number of other surrounding properties at risk, including a nearby community college.

The fire brigade had to attend a badly-damaged West Country public toilet following reports of an explosion. Crews from Avon Fire and Rescue Service and police officers rushed to the car park facility in Weston-super-Mare, but luckily there was no blaze. The police are now investigating the incident at the popular holiday resort.

A business organisation is urging firms to liaise with their local police authority in order to fight crime. “Many small businesses are run by members of the local community so it is important that those communities and small businesses themselves have confidence that the police are willing to act when crimes are reported,” stated the Federation of Small Businesses.

County Durham police force has reduced crime despite increasing doubts over its future as a separate entity. Chief Constable Jon Stoddart said: “These excellent results are putting us on course to far exceed our targets for reducing crime and increasing detections.

Police investigating a robbery at a bookmaker in Sunderland have released CCTV footage of the raid. In the incident two men entered the William Hill store late in the evening. One stood guard at the front door while the other threatened a female member of staff before hitting her with an unknown object. The man jumped over the counter and took a quantity of cash from the till, and then both ran out of the shop.

Police were staggered to find £½m hidden in a toilet in chalet owned by a convicted criminal. The money was later confiscated after police produced evidence it came from drugs profits. The investigation linked Peter Wells with the chalet in Allhallows, Kent after his car was involved in a stop-and-search. Wells told officers he had won £100,000 on the Lottery, but failed to give a reasonable explanation for the rest.

Hampshire Constabulary has had to shed nearly a quarter of its workforce in order to make ends meet, and the force has restructured amid fears that it will not be able perform as effectively as before. John Apter, chairman of Hampshire Police Federation, said the workforce "have known for several weeks things look very bleak for the future".

The body which represents police officers in England and Wales says up to 40,000 front-line jobs could go if the anticipated 25 per cent budget cuts take place. The Police Federation has said it was inevitable crime would go up if these conditions prevail.

Worried relatives are demanding security measures, including CCTV, be installed at a Cambridgeshire cemetery, believing that two thefts could just be the tip of the iceberg and that another family might be put through the trauma. Campaigner Penny Thornton arrived at her mother Patricia Shears’ grave to find a bronze statue, which was secured to the gravestone, had been stolen some time between then and her previous visit to the Eastfield Cemetery in Peterborough.

Concerns have been raised about signs put up in a Portsmouth neighbourhood to deter wrong-doers after a spate of criminal damage. Police install the signs for short periods of time in crime hot spots at the request of the local safer neighbourhood teams or crime prevention officers.

A deception involving a false passport meant a woman passed herself off as someone else undetected for seven years. The ruse of Qamar Yasmeen was only rumbled when the woman whose documents were used renewed her passport at the Passport Services offices in Liverpool in July last year. Staff found that a passport had been issued with Yasmeen’s photograph and address.