Londoners were today warned they face an unprecedented risk of being the victim of crime as a report revealed the true level of nationwide offending is double the previous total.

The Office for National Statistics said the inclusion of 5.8 million fraud and other online offences in official statistics for the first time meant there were 12.1 million crimes in England and Wales up to the end of March this year. The previous official annual total was 6.3 million.

The new figure means every one in 10 people is becoming a victim of fraud or cyber offending.

But statisticians said the most striking development was that all social classes and areas of the country were being equally affected by fraud and cyber crime.

John Flatley, head of crime statistics at the ONS, said: “That is something that we haven’t seen before. The risk is spread across all demographics.”

He added the fraud figures showed Londoners were slightly more likely to suffer crimes than those elsewhere.

He said that unlike burglars and robbers, who tend to target deprived inner-city areas, fraudsters and cyber criminals operated indiscriminately.

The new data is based on a survey of public experiences of offending and follows police warnings that there has been a major shift towards offending online.

The figures have not been officially measured before but will now form part of the British Crime Survey, used by the Government and statisticians to assess offending levels.

Other statistics published today show an 8 per cent rise in police recorded offences, with 4.5 million crimes in 2015/16.

Violence against the person was up 27 per cent, driven partly by a huge surge in harassment offences. These include sending letters or other communications. The inclusion of “revenge porn” crimes in statistics also pushed up harassment figures.

Homicides were higher, with 34 more killings, although the murder rate per million people remains well below a decade ago. Knife crime recorded by police rose 10 per cent.

Policing minister Brandon Lewis said despite the inclusion of fraud and cyber crime in the statistics, overall offending was falling.

But he also pledged more action: “The Government has been working to get ahead of the game, committing to spend £1.9 billion on cyber security and cyber crime over the next five years.”

Jack Dromey MP, Labour’s shadow policing minister for three years, said: “Crime is not falling, crime is changing. You are more likely now to be mugged online than in the street.”