Shortfall of cash means thousands are getting away with their crimes.

Under-funding has been blamed, but the fact remains that thousands of criminals in Lincolnshire are simply getting away with it.

Approximately 8,000 reported crimes were “screened out” last year – meaning no further investigations were done and no-one was arrested.

In many cases, no officer even attended the crime scene.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that last year, 7,849 crimes were “screened out”, due to an offence going undetected, or by being marked as an ineffective use of resources.

In 2008, 10,059 crimes out of 56,734 were “screened out”, while in 2007 the total was 9,003 out of 55,277.

Police say under-funding is to blame, but victims of crime say it is galling to know that police sometimes don’t even try to find offenders.

Lincolnshire Police’s Crime Registrar, Pete Bray, said: “A decision is made about whether a crime is screened in or out after viewing all the information available after an initial investigation, whether it be by telephone or by physical attendance.

“The issue of available evidence is important in the decision as to whether a crime should be screened in or out. A lack of evidence will make it difficult to detect an offence or secure a conviction.”

Victim of crime Gawaine Clark cor had his turbo-charged 300bhp Subaru Impreza rally car stolen from Langworth in November 2008.

Mr Clark, who owns Langworth Motors, had spent thousands of pounds on the vehicle, which was never recovered by police.

He said he finds the police method of “screening out” crimes frustrating. “I can’t say I’m surprised this is a method police use, but I can say I’m frustrated by it,” said Mr Clark, 43.

“I appreciate police have budget constraints, but I don’t trust them to follow up a crime to the extent it should be. It was important to me not only to get back a valuable piece of kit, but that the people responsible were brought to justice.

“It’s galling that some cases will not be investigated properly, meaning they are often never solved.”

Lincolnshire Police Authority member Chris Underwood-Frost, said Lincolnshire should be proud of its force, and that they were doing the best they could with the resources available from the Government.

“The delivery of a police officer’s duties in Lincolnshire stacks up,” he said. “It is deemed that Lincolnshire police officers work extremely hard, and we should be proud of our , who do face difficulties.

“We have put in robust requests to the Government for funding, and have said policing and the safety of Lincolnshire people is paramount.

“Significant issues with funding are going to happen in the next few years.

“The number of crimes is the number of crimes. Those who engage themselves with criminal activity will carry on doing whatever they will need to do.

“The issue here is that, in terms of policing, Lincolnshire has its own quirky difficulties, which may not be high on an agenda elsewhere.

“The Lincolnshire force has to police a sparsely-populated, rural area in the best possible way with the money we’ve got.

“Policing a wide area can be more costly than policing a metropolitan city – it’s hardly surprising there are concerns with how policing will go in Lincolnshire.”