Overall crime rose by 7.2 per cent in Wyndham for 2013-14.
Victoria Police figures, released on Wednesday, show that there was a massive increase in robberies – up 70.8 per cent – compared with the previous year.
Overall burglaries were up 49.2 per cent, car theft increased by 9.8 per cent and assaults rose 8.8 per cent.
While crime in Wyndham shot up in a number of areas, residential burglaries were down by 24 per cent and drug offences fell by 6 per cent.
Wyndham police Inspector Damien Christensen said the rise in robberies and assaults was a concern.
“Many of these robberies are occurring where demands are made for people to hand over mobile phones and are not involving weapons.
‘‘For both robbery and assault-related crime, we are planning to conduct some more high-visibility operations through the recent increases in staff allocated to Wyndham.”
Read the full report about crime statistics in next week’s edition of Star Weekly.
