A CRIME-SOLVING charity has had a bumper year, thanks partly to the people in Worcestershire and in Herefordshire.

Information passed anonymously to West Mercia's Crimestoppers has seen more than 200 criminals brought to justice across the two counties, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin.

Figures for January to December 2007 show that of the thousands of calls received on the 0800 555111 hotline, 1,616 were forwarded to police for action leading to 206 people being arrested and charged for a variety of offences including, robbery, burglary, theft, vehicle crime and drugs.

However, a spokesman for the charity was unable to say how much money had been given out as rewards to callers with information and was unable to highlight any specific crimes solved by Crimestoppers.

Jenny Wynn, chairwoman of the Crimestoppers West Mercia board said: "The past year has undoubtedly been a successful one for Crimestoppers, with more and more people choosing to pick up the telephone and pass on information about crime.

"People feel much more at ease talking to Crimestoppers because they know that it really is completely anonymous. Criminals rely on others saying nothing, but Crimestoppers offers the chance to tackle crime without getting directly involved - picking up the phone is all it takes and no one will ever know who made the call."

Last year also saw West Mercia Crimestoppers break the 3,000 barrier for the number of arrests and charges brought since it was formed in 1994, with the total reaching 3,044 at the year end. In total £213,343 worth of property and £74,222 of drugs were recovered.