THE number of people being convicted for offences in Lancashire is at a four-year high, police revealed.

However, it has emerged that around half of crimes were not dealt with by the courts.

Figures show that in the year to the end of August 2007, 23,241 offences resul-ted in a court conviction - out of 48,671 crimes.

The other 25,430 were dealt with in a range of ways including a caution, a penalty notice, a conditional caution or a new disposal being piloted in the county to take pressure off the courts.

Inspector John Clucas said: "The conditional cau-tion has taken business away from the court.

"If someone wants compensation for their car being damaged they don't have to go to court anymore because we can deal with that with the conditional caution scheme we are piloting.

"It sends out a clear message to anyone who chooses to offend: we are now very good at investigating crimes, arre-sting suspects and charging and convicting those who are guilty."

More serious offences and prolific offenders are usually put before a court.

But cautions are often used for lower level offences.

The figures come less than a month after it emerged more than 88,000 offences reported last year went unsolved, despite the county's cops being in England's top five for detecting crime.