NORTHUMBRIA Police have written off more than 65,000 cases, including violent crimes, criminal damage and burglaries, as unsolved, an investigation has found.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who represents Oxford West and Abingdon, has uncovered more than two thirds of burglaries and vehicle crimes were being closed by police forces throughout the North-East without a suspect being identified.

A total of 111,792 cases in the region in 2019 were closed after being unsolved by Northumbria Police, Durham Constabulary and Cleveland Police.

In the Northumbria Police force area, the unsolved crimes broke down as 13,646 cases of criminal damage; 10,778 violent crimes; 6,517 vehicle crimes; 5,817 burglaries; 122 cases of unsolved drug crime and 28,696 crimes logged as ‘other’.

The figures showed that Northumbria Police logged 65,576 cases as ‘investigation complete; no suspect identified'. The number of crimes requiring no further action in the region had increased rapidly over the past decade and grew from 361,180 in 2010 to 2.2m last year, equivalent to 43 per cent of all crimes.

Layla Moran said the number of cases closed without further investigation in the North-East was “scandalous”.

“It’s imperative that the police explore every avenue and act with compassion for the victims and their families when investigating these crimes,” she said.

“We are seeing murders, rapes, stalking cases and serious assaults filed, nothing happening for months, if at all, and reports just gathering dust in a police filing system. All the while victims are longing for justice. Millions of people are left without justice and angry that criminals are getting away scot-free .”