Business leaders in Bradford have hit back at a study which showed the city to be bottom of the business crime league table.

A study by insurance group AXA claimed Bradford made the highest proportion of crime-related insurance claims in the country.

It claimed that 28.64 per cent of all claims made in Bradford between July and September this year were from business, the highest in the country.

However Bradford Chamber, which conducts quarterly surveys of its more than 1,000 member businesses in the city, said that concern over crime had fallen over the past few years.

Bradford's claim levels were 6.18 per cent higher than the same period in 2006, AXA claimed.

Andy Cullwick, the Chamber's sales and marketing manager, said: "Bradford Chamber felt the AXA report was quite surprising. While crime was raised as a serious issue three years ago in our members' survey, recent surveys have shown this to be falling as a concern due to agencies such as the police doing a lot of hard work around Bradford to help reduce crime.

"It is difficult to quantify the report as it is no longer specific what the difference between business crime and normal crime is.

"It seems to fluctuate quite a lot and we are not quite sure about the sample size they are using."

Crime did come top of the list of concerns facing Bradford businesses in its survey late in 2005. However this was ascribed to the fact that the census was distributed on the same day as the murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky as she arrived at the scene of a robbery at a Bradford travel agent.

Since then other issues such as red tape and slow progress on the city centre's regeneration projects have topped the list of challenges facing the Bradford business community.

AXA said that there was a 20 per cent rise in crime-related settlements nationally among firms, with theft showing an even bigger increase.

The average insurance settlement was about £4,000, with arson, malicious damage and break-ins among the main reasons for claims.

Bradford had the highest proportion of crime-related claims made by businesses in the three months to September, followed by Bristol, Cardiff and Derby.

Doug Barnett, risk manager at AXA, said: "Crime-related claims have been consistently higher this year compared to 2006. This is particularly worrying as we approach the Christmas period which is traditionally one of the busiest periods for business crime."