SCORES of serious crimes occurring in Inverclyde are being kept under wraps by local police - including sex offences, break-ins and drug arrests.

Using Freedom of Information laws, the Telegraph has lifted the lid on the true extent of the large volume of offences taking place across the district which police have failed to inform the public about.

Our investigation compared the number of crimes reported to police in June of this year with the number of crimes that had been communicated through public channels to people in Inverclyde.

It found that of the 527 crimes recorded in the district during June, only a fraction were disclosed.

Over the five-week period, there were 77 thefts, 22 assaults, 13 housebreakings, six sexual offences and nine fraud incidents.

Only a tiny amount were ever made public.

Although the police do compile statistics on crime which are reported to councillors on a scrutiny panel when it meets, this process is retrospective, meaning that the public do not know at the time about many serious crimes being committed in their community.

Nine fireraising incidents, 46 instances of vandalism, nine cases of drug supply and four rapes were among the crimes recorded which the police chose not to disclose.

Other incidents that police were called out to but did not tell the public about included five hate crimes, 10 instances of a personal attack alarm having to be activated, 28 cases of drugs or substance misuse, 13 fires and 40 neighbour disputes.

The vast majority of 61 road traffic collisions which occurred in June also went undisclosed.

Local police chiefs did not provide a comment on the data obtained by the Telegraph despite repeated approaches being made.