County has one of the lowest rates for pickpocketing crimes

Britain’s pickpocketing hotspots have been revealed following an investigation by gadget insurance provider Protect Your Bubble.com.

The company sourced data from police forces across the country using the Freedom of Information Act.

Surprisingly, Lincolnshire Police Force area was ranked second and recorded 10,440 thefts from persons over the same timeframe of 2013-2017, amounting to 140 for every 10,000 people - more than three times the national average.

However, a Lincolnshire Police media spokesman explained: “An error in the reported data means the figures reported as being for Lincolnshire are actually for the entire region. Lincolnshire actually recorded 1,596 theft from person offences between January 2013 and December 2017 (or 1,629 reported).

“This puts us at 21 offences per 10,000 people (assuming 751,200 is the population of Lincolnshire) – this is half the national average and would put us as one of the lowest rather than the second highest.”

London was revealed as pickpocketing capital of Britain following an investigation of Theft From the Person crimes listed at more than five times the national average. Nottinghamshire was eighth in the list with 5,769 incidents and at 51 incidents per 10,000 pe0ple just over the national average of 4.5. Towns in Dyfed-Powys, Wales, were found to be the safest with just a handful of thefts.

The investigation was carried out using Freedom of Information requests to forces.