Incidents of fraud, burglary and related offences rose in the second quarter of this year, with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) noting theft crime at its highest for five years.
Analysis of theft and related offences, which were up by 8 per cent or by 5,354 incidents in the 12 months to the second quarter of this year showed nearly half or 49 per cent of such incidents involved theft from a shop.
The CSO also said the number of reported cases of burglary and related offences rose by 2 per cent when comparing figures for the second quarter of 2024 (April, May and June) with the similar period in 2023. Over the 12 months to June 2024, the CSO said the increase was 9 per cent.
But there were regional disparities. Burglary and related offences had the largest rate of increase in the Southern region at 32 per cent with the lowest increase in the Dublin Metrapolitian Region at 2 per cent.
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The CSO Recorded Crime Report found the number of reported cases of fraud, deception and related offences increased by 8 per cent for the second quarter of 2004, when compared to the second quarter of 2023.
However, when looked at yearly the number of cases of fraud, deception and related offences increased by more than a fifth, or 21 per cent, with 2,153 incidents in the 12 months to June.
Sexual offences were down 6 per cent when comparing the quarters to June, compared with a fall of 12 per cent over the year.
Homicide and related offences fell by 27 per cent when comparing the quarters, and were down by 15 per cent over the year.
Offences against Government, justice procedures and organised crime were down 8 per cent when comparing the quarters. Looking at the full year to June 2024 the decline was 13 per cent.
There were 76,501 recorded incidents of theft and related offences in the year to June. The CSO said this was the highest over the five years between 2020 and 2024.
However, the trend was more complex for some categories with robbery, extortion and hijacking offences down 6 per cent when comparing the second quarters this year and last, but up 8 per cent over the 12 months to June.
Public order and other social offences were up by 2 per cent between quarters, but down 3 per cent over the year.
Dangerous or negligent acts rose by 2 per cent when comparing the quarters but fell by 2 per cent over the year.
The figures related to crimes that were reported to the Garda and recorded on the Garda computer system.
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