The cost of riots in Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Birmingham to West Midlands Police has increased to £17 million, it has emerged.

The disorder last month sparked the biggest single investigation by the force since the IRA bombings in Birmingham in 1974.

Chief Constable Chris Sims revealed last month that the cost to the force had originally been estimated at around £12m, which included paying overtime for officers and staff who worked 12-hour shifts instead of the usual eight as they tried to contain rioters on the streets and carried out round-the-clock investigations in the weeks that followed.

But a meeting of Wolverhampton’s safer communities panel last night heard that a further £5m of compensation claims had been made under the Riot Damages Act, for which police are legally liable.

It comes with police still investigating 40 incidents of looting and vandalism that happened in Wolverhampton on August 9 when hundreds of people descended on the city centre, leaving a trail of wrecked businesses and shops.

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