The railway stations in Kent where you are most likely to witness or fall victim to a crime have been revealed.

Police were called to nearly 1,000 reports of anti-social behaviour (ASB) across the network over 12 months – as well as hundreds of other offences, including serious public order and violence.

Ashford International was named the most crime-ridden station with 128 offences recorded between October 2021 and September 2022.

The station is among the busiest in the county serving upwards of 7,000 passengers a day and most incidents related to reports of anti-social behaviour (81).

Other offences included serious public order (10), violence against the person (8) and drug offences (4).

On average, there was around an incident once every three days at Ashford, and it was followed closely by Gillingham railway station (101), Ramsgate (72) and Sevenoaks (69).

The data was released by British Transport Police (BTP) following a Freedom of Information request made by KentOnline.

All stations in Kent are served by BTP which provides a policing service to Network Rail, rail and freight operators and their staff and passengers.

The crime data obtained was broken down according to whether it occurred at a station or on a train.

This included crimes committed at all railway property including car parks, station shops, concourses and platforms.

Where the exact location of on-train crime is not known – for example, the theft of luggage discovered at the end of a journey – the location is recorded as the station at the end of the trip.

Outside of the main stations, Paddock Wood on the Southeastern and Medway Valley mainlines recorded 69 offences at the station last year.

Of these, the vast majority were for ASB (52) but the commuter station in Tunbridge Wells also recorded the highest amount of drug offences (11) of any station in the county.

Just over a year ago, a man was arrested and charged after thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused to windows at the railway station on Christmas Day.

In Dartford, where there were 66 crimes reported over the year. More than one in 10 involved a report of violence (8).

This was the joint highest in the county alongside the similar-sized and frequented Ashford International (8).

Over the past five years, the station which has seen the biggest increase in reports of crime is Gillingham.

The Medway station has seen a year-on-year rise from 42 reports between October 2017 and September 2018, to 101 crimes recorded over the same time period between 2021 and September this year – a 140% increase.

The station which saw the biggest year-on-year decline was Ramsgate.

After a record high of 144 reports in 2019-20, it recorded 72 crimes in the latest period – and is back to around the same level it was during 2017-18.

It tallies up with the overall figures which show the number of crimes being recorded at or near the county's main stations is falling year-on-year.

A total of 1,686 incidents were logged by officers between October 2021 and September 2022.

This is less than the previous 12 months (2020-21) when there were 1,802 crimes recorded and the year before that (2019-20) when 1,925 were recorded.

It was also the lowest level since 2017-18 when there were 1,281 crimes reported.

The latest statistics came as Southeastern revealed it is ramping up security at 19 stations – 16 of them in Kent.

It has secured £850,000 in additional funding to step up patrols on its trains and at various platforms and concourses.

The rail operator, which was taken over by the government in September 2021, has also introduced an extra 100 body-worn video cameras to allow live monitoring by the rail provider's control rooms and Southeastern says any staff member who wants to wear one will be able to.

British Transport Police says it will continue to conduct "unpredictable and highly visible" patrols at stations across Kent day and night.