Britain's Association of Chief Police Officers has released figures plac\ing Poles at the top of the list of offenders from EU countries resident in the UK.

According to the statistics published in The Daily Telegraph today, 54,000 EU citizens have been convicted of crimes in the UK over the last two years.


In 2010, 6777 convicted criminals were Poles, followed by Romanians at 4343, Lithuanians at 4176 and the Irish at 2423.


The London Daily News, which also carries the story, claims that 30 percent of the prostitutes in the UK capital are Polish or Romanian.


Though Poles top the UK crime list, they are by far the most populous EU national group in the UK, however, after Poland joined the 27 nation bloc  in 2004.


The Office for National Statistics has published figures that point to over 500,000 Polish born residents settling in the UK since December 2003. (nh)