LANCASHIRE Police have denied under-reporting figures of violent crime in their official statistics.

The revelation came as public confidence in crime statistics took a knock, after the Home Office admitted several forces had failed to accurately record crimes of GBH.

Lancashire Constabulary, which yesterday admitted it was one of the forces affected, insisted all crimes had been thoroughly investigated and recorded but had simply been logged as less serious assaults.

Types of offences mis-counted are thought to inc-lude serious, alcohol-fuelled violence where the attacker had intended serious harm but the victim escaped significant injury.

Lancashire Constab-ulary, led by Chief Constable Steve Finnigan, admitted figures for GBH assaults in the county had rocketed by almost 82 per cent between March and June this year compared to 2007.

However they claim the dramatic rise is down to a new way the government counted those crimes and that under the old method the rise would have been 3.8 per cent.

Crime in the county had fallen by two per cent in total.

Violent crime, including violence against the person, sexual offences and robbery, was down by 3.9 per cent.