MORE than a tenth of the country's electoral fraud allegations this year came from Bradford, the Telegraph & Argus can reveal.

The district had been named as a ballot fraud hotspot ahead of this year's local and European elections, and now new information released under the Freedom of Information Act sheds a light on the extent of the problem in the district this year.

In total, 15 reports were made to police about election-related crimes, including postal vote fraud, assault and intimidation.

According to draft figures from the Electoral Commission, 114 allegations were reported across the UK.

In Bradford, only one allegation has resulted in charges being brought against someone in court.

Two people were given cautions for the offence of 'multiple voting', while three undisclosed allegations are still under investigation.

West Yorkshire Police decided to take no further action on the rest of the reports, citing a variety of reasons.

The cautions were given to a 33-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman, both from Keighley, who had registered to vote by post but had also attended a polling station.

Although they had voted twice in both elections, the outcome of these elections was not said to have been affected.

The police said the cautions had been appropriate because of the nature of the offence and because neither of them had offended before.

Chief Inspector Carl Burkey, of West Yorkshire Police, said: "West Yorkshire Police has worked closely with Bradford Council throughout the process to make sure that public confidence in the voting system is maintained, and has taken appropriate action where offences have been discovered."

Bradford Council's returning officer Tony Reeves said they took all allegations extremely seriously.

He said: "When you look at the number of complaints received against the number of votes cast overall, 128,787, then it is a very small number of allegations.

"I think people can have real confidence in the integrity of the electoral system and we will continue to work closely with the police and the Electoral Commission to keep improving our ability to detect and deal with malpractice."

Before this year's election, the Electoral Commission identified Bradford as one of 16 local authority areas where there was a "higher risk" of electoral fraud.