While giving a report at last week's Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council meeting, Inspector Angus MacInnes explained that officers were presently going back through the crime statistics to see if they could find a pattern to the offences.

Inspector MacInnes said: "The one thing that has really struck me in Caithness on the whole is the amount of vandalism there is."

While working in Shetland, he stated that police could often trace the offences back to one youth who went out and smashed other people's property up when he was "fed up".

The inspector said he felt that a number of the cases of vandalism were caused by people in retaliation for an annoyance.

However, he went on to say that the detection rate had gone up by five per cent compared with the same period last year.

As previously reported, there were 392 reports of vandalism in the county between April and September and officers have detected 38 per cent of those crimes.

Community safety officer Joanna Copsey is currently carrying out security surveys which are aimed at helping people to prevent their property being vandalised.

Inspector MacInnes pointed out that when investigating incidents of damage it was often difficult to find people willing to come forward as witnesses. He went on to say that he would like to encourage members of the public to speak to the police.

On a more positive note, he stated that the number of reports of vandalism had dropped by the best part of 100 compared with the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the police have been involved in ongoing school liaison work and last week sixth-year pupils at Wick High were given a talk which included advice on antisocial driving.

Inspector MacInnes said: "If it has an impact on one child then it is worth it."

The inspector added that police were still looking into the problem of taxi booze runs being carried out for underage drinkers.

He added that if children were caught with alcohol, letters would be sent home to their parents and, if found drinking again, the youngsters would be referred to a multi-agency meeting.

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