Crime at five of Kingston’s busiest late night venues has dropped by half since the introduction of a photo ID scanning system, a new police report says.

Offences inside Oceana, the Hippodrome, McClusky’s and the King’s Tun have fallen by 50 per cent since the installation of Scan Net in October 2012, with Barcadia in Clarence Street following suit in May this year.

Scan Net machines scan the ID of everyone entering a venue, and can detect fakes and whether someone has been banned anywhere else in the UK.

The information can then be shared between venues using Scan Net.

The Metropolitan Police report also said that since the introduction of Scan Net, serious crime in the town centre had fallen by 36 per cent.

Kingston police Chief Inspector Gary Taylor said: “This system has been very much accepted by the people who use the venues and I know that people feel safer because of this.

“The hard work that was undertaken to have these installed is now paying off.

“We are very pleased with the crime reductions but we never take success for granted and will continue to look for new initiatives and tactics for the night time economy within Kingston.”

Scan Net was first introduced by the Safer Kingston Partnership on October 26 – the day after 20-year-old Jamie Sanderson was murdered inside Oceana.

Crime inside the venue has fallen significantly in that time, although club bosses at Luminar have conceded some of that could be attributed to a significant decline in customers.

In April, the owners of Barcadia – opposite Oceana – were threatened with losing their licence unless they agreed to install the ID scanner to control “unacceptable levels of crime” inside the venue.

Kingstonfirst chief executive Ros Morgan said: “We are encouraged by the figures shown in the Metropolitan Police report and hope this will result in more of the venues in the town centre introducing the technology.”