THE number of people charged with race hate crimes in Hampshire has DOUBLED, new figures reveal.

An official investigation showed 115 defendants in the county faced charges for racist crimes in 2002-03.

This compared to just 57 a year earlier - a 100 per cent increase.

The figures were released by the Crown Prosecution Service, which monitored race crimes across England and Wales over a 12-month period.

Nationally the number of racially-motivated offences received by prosecutors from the police jumped 12 per cent to nearly 4,200 last year.

But the probe also showed the conviction rate for race crimes in Hampshire fell below the national average.

Of 143 charges prosecuted by the CPS, only 116 - 81 per cent - returned a guilty verdict. The conviction rate for England and Wales was 85 per cent.

Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald said: "I am reassured that the conviction rate remains at a high 85 per cent for this type of hate crime. We are working closely with police to build strong cases and continue to achieve a large number of guilty pleas at court."

But the report also found Hampshire police were failing to hand vital files to prosecutors dealing with racist crimes.

Officers should give lawyers a Racist Incident Report whenever they tackle a racially-motivated offence. But in Hampshire the reports were not passed on in 86 per cent of cases. That means key evidence could have been lost in 99 of the 115 racist incidents taken to court.

According to the CPS, the Racist Incident Reports kept by police can contain significant evidence to help the prosecution beef up their case and ensure the guilty are convicted. Yet, despite an agreement between the authorities for the files to be shared, officers are consistently failing to include them with other paperwork.