Conservative mayoral candidate Steve Norris

Crime is costing each Londoner £1600 per year, Steve Norris has claimed.

Publishing a crime "league table", the Conservative mayoral candidate revealed that the cost of violent crime has totalled £12 billion in the last year.

The boroughs of Westminster, Lambeth and Camden were found to be worst affected, although there was also a disproportionate rise in areas on the edge of the capital.

And the boroughs of Waltham Forest, Haringey, Hounslow, Tower Hamlets and Harrow saw increases ranging from just over a fifth to just under a third.

The report, compiled by London assembly member Richard Barnes, found that figures had increased by 11 per cent over the past three years.

Norris, a former transport minister, called for "The economic costs of crime In London" to be used to target police resources.

"These figures show that crime is just as much a problem in the leafy suburbs as the inner city," he said.

"What London needs is a mayor who understands the scale of the problem and is prepared to take action.

"What these figures conceal is the huge emotional and psychological impact of every criminal act."

However, the report was dismissed by London mayor Ken Livingstone as "trying to pull the wool over Londoners' eyes".

"The report is fundamentally flawed - it has more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese," he said.

"The report's authors have double-counted one year's cost of crime, which is itself inflated, widely overstating the increase in order to con the public."