LAW enforcers have struck a blow in the battle against race crime in North Yorkshire, new statistics show.

The figures reveal that 94 per cent of people prosecuted for racially motivated crimes in the county's courts last year were convicted.

The figures for 2002-2003 were released this week in the Racist Incident Monitoring Scheme Annual Report, which collects data on racist incidents sent by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for prosecution.

Last year 35 defendants were accused of racially motivated crime and 28 were successfully prosecuted by North Yorkshire CPS.

This means 80 per cent of cases were prosecuted - above the national average of 74 per cent.

The number of defendants rose by seven from the previous year.

Of 53 charges brought in total against defendants, 34 were prosecuted and 19 were dropped.

The majority of dropped cases were a result of insufficient evidence or the failure of witnesses to attend court.

This is the fourth full year in which the CPS has gathered information on racially aggravated offences under the Crime And Disorder Act 1998. The overall conviction percentage is 85 - up slightly on 2001/02

Rob Turnbull, chief crown prosecutor for North Yorkshire, said: "These are pleasing figures. The increase in the number of cases prosecuted over the previous year reflects concerted efforts by all criminal justice agencies to encourage victims of racist crime to report offences and the determination on behalf of the police and the CPS to bring these cases to justice.

"In North Yorkshire, 80 per cent of cases sent to the CPS by the police were prosecuted, as compared to 74 per cent nationally and, of these cases, 94 per cent resulted in convictions as compared to 85 per cent nationally. The number of cases is small and there is no room for complacency. We still believe that there are victims of racial and other hate crimes that need to be encouraged and supported to come forward. The message is clear, to the victims and to those who would commit criminal acts motivated by racism, that this type of offending cannot be tolerated and where the evidence exists, it will be prosecuted robustly."

Updated: 10:38 Wednesday, April 07, 2004