Police chief calls for more cash to fight migrant crime despite official report claiming there isn't a problem

A chief constable led calls yesterday for a cash boost to fight the "significant challenges" of migrant crime committed by eastern Europeans.

Julie Spence, the head of Cambridgeshire Police, made the call as an official report from the Association of Chief Police Officers warned of a "huge surge" in organised crime caused by their influx.

Mrs Spence had spoken out after misleading leaked briefings of the report downplayed the impact of criminality among immigrant communities.

The Guardian newspaper reported there had been no so-called "migrant crimewave" involving Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians and other Eastern Europeans who have come here since 2004.

The disclosure was later repeated at the top of BBC Radio 4's Today programme and news bulletins.

The claims provoked anger among senior officers who are due to discuss the issue with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today.

They felt that the reported findings contradicted their own first-hand experiences on the ground.

But it later emerged, when the full report was leaked yesterday afternoon, that the account of what was in the ACPO report was misleading.

The study actually gives a startling insight into the impacts of mass immigration on local communities.

Warning of an increase in violence, extortion, human trafficking and a "growing sex trade", it claims front-line police are having to "pick up the consequences of new forms of criminality, community tensions and the complexity of using interpreters and gaining intelligence".

Police say that while migrants are as likely to be arrested as a British citizen, processing them takes up more time and costs more through translation costs because they speak little or no English.

Mrs Spence, who warned last year of the problems her officers faced, said before the full report was leaked: "The growth in our [migrant] population has brought about significant policing challenges, not least the time and effort we put into dealing with offenders whose first language is not English.

"We have seen an increase in specific offences such as motoring offences, sex trafficking, and worker exploitation - a form of modern-day slavery."

Police chiefs now fear ACPO's clumsy spin operation will weaken their hand at today's talks, after months of trying to persuade the Home Office of the need for extra funds.

The study was compiled by North Yorkshire Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell and his Cheshire counterpart Peter Fahy ahead of today's crime summit.

It warns that the sheer scale and speed of mass immigration has caused problems, quoting Government figures showing "over one million" eastern Europeans now live in the UK.

It states: "EU migration has brought with it a huge surge in the exploitation of migrants and organised crime.

"EU accession migrants are continuing to present challenges across a range of policing activity, including minor public order, increased violence and drink-related offences.

"Notable changes in crime patterns include extortion, 'dipping' [pickpocketing], human trafficking and a growing sex trade."

Smaller police forces in rural areas, where hundreds of thousands of eastern European migrants congregate to work on farms, are facing "the biggest challenges".

For example, Cambridgeshire Police spent more than £1million on interpreters last year - up 50 per cent in two years.

Crime problems are springing up in specific areas or among particular groups, including Polish workers linked to drink-driving and Romanian children being used by adults in central London to commit robberies.

The study adds: "While overall this country has accommodated this huge influx with little rise in community tensions, in some areas sheer numbers, resentment and misunderstanding have created problems."

Policing problems are worsened by the lack of understanding of new crime patterns or where migrants are settling, the report claims.

"There is no compelling information about the number of EU migrant workers entering the UK and how they are moving around the country once here," it says.

"There is a lack of awareness nationally of the organised crime taking place by EU criminals, and an understanding within the Police Service of some of the 'new' crimes being introduced to the UK."

Analysis: How the gullible liberal media swallowed the spin on migrant crime

"Migrant crime fears unfounded," declared the BBC Today programme.

"Migrant crime wave a myth," was the Guardian front page headline. The tone was triumphant, valedictory.

The liberal Left had been right throughout, and the influx of one million eastern European migrants in less than four years - contrary to the claims of some chief constables - had created little pressure or trouble.

The source was good. A report by the Association of Chief Police Officers, prepared for the Home Secretary, had reached this firm conclusion.

Except it had done no such thing. The report itself, leaked in full yesterday, bore no relation to the BBC or Guardian headline claims.

"EU accession migrants are continuing to present challenges across a range of policing activity," reads one paragraph.

There are "notable changes in crime patterns, including extortion, 'dipping' [pick-pocketing], human trafficking and a growing sex trade", warns another.

Most curious of all, there is not a single mention of a migrant crimewave, let alone about one being "unfounded" or a "myth".

But the damage, as far as police intending to ask Jacqui Smith for extra cash to cope with the influx are concerned, had been done.

It was out there - in the public and Home Office mind - that struggling forces had no grounds for legitimate complaint or special treatment.

So how did this happen? The answer is a combination of police spin, and complicity by all involved.

The chief constable who co-authored the report wanted a "good news" story ahead of today's migrant crime summit with Miss Smith, so contacted the Guardian.

The newspaper, which sits proudly at the heart of the Left-wing establishment, was given a briefing which led it to decide ACPO's "wide-ranging police study" had "concluded the surge in immigrants from eastern Europe to Britain had not fuelled a rise in crime".

A few negatives were scattered in, such as a huge increase in translation costs to the police, but the overall tone was one of success.

Police and immigrants working together, with remarkably little fuss.

The Guardian, as dogmatic in its pro-immigration stance as any opponent on the other side of the argument, was vindicated, and served up precisely the frontpage splash ACPO (or at least the officer involved) was seeking.

Then the BBC, dragged reluctantly into debating immigration by sheer force of public opinion in recent months, got wind of the story and followed up with glee. It was a fait-accompli.

Even if accurate, the coverage would have begged several questions, not least who had claimed there was a migrant crimewave in the first place?

Cambridgeshire Chief Constable Julie Spence - whose intervention last year was the report's spur - had warned of pressure on her local force, and problems with sex trafficking and eastern Europeans drink driving.

Neither she nor any other respected critic had suggested the new arrivals were committing disproportionate levels of overall crime (indeed, it is widely accepted - not least by the Daily Mail - that the vast majority are here to work hard).

What is true is that the migrants are as likely to be arrested by the police as a British citizen, but - when this happens - consume more resources by virtue of speaking little or no English.

That has always been the point but, instead, ACPO opted to create the myth of a migrant crimewave in order to knock it flat.

Sympathetic commentators lapped it up.

Mrs Spence was so annoyed and bemused that she was forced to issue her own statement in response to the BBC and Guardian stories, restating her case.

And rank-and-file police were "spitting feathers" that ACPO had cut the legs from under chief constables on the eve of their meeting with Miss Smith.

Then came the leak, which thankfully set the record straight. Cash-strapped chief constables must now hope the Home Secretary (as she surely must) bases her decision on what the report actually says - rather than what the pro-migration lobby hoped it would say, and did its best to spin.