House burglars take €58m in 12 months - survey

Burglars stole almost €60 million worth of goods from homes in Ireland over a twelve month period, a survey published today has shown.

Although burglaries across the country dropped by 17.8% between June 2003 and June 2004, the report found that an average value of just under €3,600 was stolen from each home burgled in Ireland during this time.

A total of €58 million stolen indicated an increase of 11.5% in the value of goods stolen over year, Eircom Phonewatch's 2004 Burglary Report showed.

Although enjoying a drop in burglaries of 26 per cent since 2003, Dublin remains the worst affected area accounting for 37 per cent of all burglaries nation-wide and when combined with the surrounding counties of Kildare, Wicklow and Meath, this figure rose to 51 per cent.

Waterford showed the largest increase with 7.3 per cent of burglaries outside the Dublin area taking place in the southern city over the twelve months surveyed.

Limerick is the most burgled county outside of Dublin with almost 11 per cent of all burglaries. Leitrim, closely followed by Monaghan, Longford, Roscommon, Cavan, Clare and Mayo, was found to be the county with the least amount of burglaries committed.

Cork also saw a drop of 5 per cent over the last 12 months , accounting for 8.9 per cent of all burglaries outside the Dublin area.

The survey also found that victims were most likely to be burgled on a Friday (16 per cent) with 8 a.m - 12 midday the queitest time of the day for burglaries. Monday is when people are least likely (13 per cent) to be burgled.

Semi-detached homes remain the most likely to be burgled (32 per cent) followed by detached houses (24 per cent) with terraced houses (19 per cent) the least likely to be burgled.