The riots that never were But not a single force recorded an offence of rioting - which is defined by the Home Office as "12 or more people who are present together use or threaten unlawful violence for a common purpose." Victims of the riots last night said the recording methods are "ridiculous." A Home Office document on the quarterly crime statistics yesterday said the riots had only a "small" impact on crime levels. The problem stems from police recording techniques which meant mass looting or disorder was recorded as single offences. So if someone forced their way in to a store and was then followed by 20 other, unrelated offenders who also raided its contents, police would record it as one offence of burglary. Similarly pockets of different rioters attacking different parts of a town or city at the same time would be logged as one incident of public disorder. Trevor Reeves, 56, financial director of House of Reeves, the iconic 144-year-old furniture store destroyed in an arson attack in Croydon, said the recording methods were "ridiculous." "You would expect a great big blip in the crime statistics after those five days of rioting," he said. It is crazy to put down something like looting as one crime and is unnecessary. The whole world saw what was happening and to record it like this will just make them look ridiculous. It meant in a local authority the size of Birmingham just six public disorder offences were recorded for the entire period of the rioting. Police there logged 363 crimes in total for the riots but overall crime for the month was 3,705 compared to 3,851 for August 2010. Similarly police in Manchester recorded just 11 public disorder incidents and 386 connected offences but said overall crime fell for the month. Police in the London boroughs of Hackney and Southwark recorded just one public disorder incident for each despite five days of unrest and 172 and 314 other offences respectively. Official figures said overall crime in both those boroughs was also down in August compared to the previous year. Across the country, police recorded 184 incidents of violent disorder and a total of 5,112 connected crimes, including criminal damage, burglary and theft. The fifteen worst hit local authority areas accounted for 71 per cent of all the crimes. But of those 15, police in nine recorded more public disorder in August 2010 and seven said overall crime fell in August 2011 compared to the previous year. Six recorded falls in acquisitive crimes, such as burglary and theft, eleven said violence had decreased and two said criminal damage fell. The Home Office document said: "It is important to understand the basis of crime recording to appreciate the impact of the disorder incidents on crime statistics. Police record crimes according to the number of specific victims, rather than the number of offenders. For example, if five people burgle a shop, one victim-based crime of burglary would be recorded. Conversely, if one person assaults three people (as part of the same overall incident) then three victim-based crimes of violence would be recorded. "An individual burglary of a high-street shop ("looting") that involved a large number of offenders would be classified as a single offence of burglary." The document added that "although the disorder events involved were a very high level of visible criminality in some localised areas, the overall impact on national recorded crime figures is small."