The number of drugs offences committed in the town centre has increased by more than a third.

New figures published by Sutton Police have shown more than 100 drug offences were committed between April and December last year.

It showed a marked increase from 67 offences in the same time period in 2009.

Police said the increase was because of pro-active police operations, including disrupting and catching criminals coming in to Sutton by train.

There have also been a number of high profile drug-busts on Cannabis farms, including the raid on Sutherland House which found 3000 plants with a street value of £1.5m.

A Sutton Police spokesperson said: "In addition we have continued to build better working practices with door staff at the clubs and bars, which has resulted in more calls to police, more offences being reported and more arrests.

"Our safer neighbourhoods teams are also proactive in gathering information from their communities about criminal and anti-social behaviour and this has resulted in a number of drugs raids to disrupt drugs dealing and cultivation.

"Although drugs offences remain low, it remains a constant focus for officers."

The new statistics also show the number of burglaries stayed about the same, instances of fraud and criminal damage fell.

The number of robberies and sexual offences over the same period halved.

There were 16 robberies and six sexual offences.