GAY and ethnic victims of crime will be able to report incidents to a member of their community rather than directly to the police under a new scheme to gauge the extent of hate crime.

In the last year, a total of 370 hate crimes were reported in County Durham and Darlington - of which, 282 were said to be racially motivated and 88 were homophobic. However, both police and community groups believe the figures represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Now Durham Police has signed up to the True Vision project, which allows people to report a crime either through a third party, over the Internet or by filling in a self-reporting pack, available at a number of community organisations.

The year-long pilot project is designed to encourage people who may be reluctant to go to the police, to speak in confidence to someone from their own community who has been trained to take crime reports.

The project has already received backing from Gay Advice Darlington, the Racial Equality Council, Durham Young Gay Men's Group and Durham University's Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender group.

PC Chris Watkins, the force community cohesion officer, said: "We know for a fact that hate crime in County Durham and Darlington is seriously under-reported. Because of this we are anxious to build a true picture of the scale of the problem."

Packs will be distributed around a number of venues, including pubs and clubs popular with the gay community.

The move was welcomed by Emma Roebuck, criminal justice worker with Gay Advice Darlington, based in Duke Street. She said: "The scheme puts hate crime higher on the agenda than it has been before. It needs to be reported and we need to provide reassurance that from now on this will not be tolerated."