Roughly 20% of firearms offences are committed with imitations
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7654/#:~:text=In the year ending 31,since 7%2C040 in 2010%2F11.
As far as the Police and the general public are concerned that's one less potential source of problems off the street. It's irrelevant if it's obvious to those in the know that it's just a toy, after all that was the whole point of the VCRA covering IF/RIFs in the first place.
Well, legally, RIFs aren't toys (designed for play by under 14s) and quite a lot of people get triggered by that fact.
Irrespective, it would appear that the VCRA has done sod all to reduce the use of replicas in crime, but we all knew the "Blears Witch Project" was never about reducing crime, but about grabbing headlines (which it never did) and the fact various politicians, many in thrall to the GCN just didn't like replica guns. Some, like Dianne Abbot even went so far as to claim replicas "bought on the high street" could be converted to fire live ammunition with "common household tools".
It was all smoke and mirrors, because the Handgun ban hadn't reduced crime, so the Politicians had look as if they were doing something. And the BASC was happy to sell out Airsoft to protect their membership so Replicas became a convenient scapegoat, driven by sensationalist campaigns in various local newspapers - the Nottingham Post ran a "No More Fake Guns" campaign that got an unfortunate amount of publicity. Ironically, despite having campaigned for a total ban, the paper claimed victory when the VCRA came in.
Personaly, having been there when the Act was still a Bill, written letters to MPs and signed petitions all to no avail, I will call out poor journalism if I see it, because that is how we ended up where we are now.
And I like curry sauce with my chips