Fraud offences double as crime levels drop slightly overall 

Only Wicklow and Meath recorded a drop-off in crime rates similar to those in the capital with decreases of 7% and 5% respectively..

Crime levels rose in more than two-thirds of all Garda divisions outside Dublin last year, despite a slight overall reduction in the number of offences recorded by gardaí nationwide.

Much of the recorded rise outside Dublin is accounted for by fraud offences, with that number more than doubling to almost 17,000. This is driven by unauthorised transactions and attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone, by inviting customers to click on links which lead to a cloned website.

15 of the 22 Garda divisions outside the capital experienced rising crime rates compared to 2020, with increases in excess of 10% in Mayo, Kildare and Wexford.

Figures published by the Central Statistics Offices based on offences recorded on the Garda PULSE system show overall crime levels across the country dropped marginally by 0.4% last year, driven largely by an average 6% decrease across the six Garda divisions in Dublin.

Only Wicklow and Meath recorded a drop-off in crime rates similar to those in the capital with decreases of 7% and 5% respectively.

The most dramatic increase was recorded in Mayo where the number of recorded offences was up 17% to 3,012.

Fraud

The rise in crime in the county was mostly driven by almost a three-fold increase in fraud offences but also a 25% increase in assaults and a 14% increase in public order offences.

The only major crime categories where rates dropped in Mayo last year were drugs and theft.

Mayo was also the only one of 28 Garda divisions where overall crime levels last year surpassed pre-Covid crime rates of 2019 as most areas experienced sizable decreases in crime rates over the past two years due to various restrictions introduced to limit the spread of the pandemic.

Unlike all other Garda divisions in the greater Dublin region where crime rates fell in 2021, Kildare recorded a 12% increase in reported offences.

Rising crime levels in Kildare last year were also explained by more than a doubling of fraud offences combined with a 66% increase in breaches of court orders as well as a 15% increase in assaults and a 24% increase in dangerous acts which mostly relate to drink driving offences.

Fraud offences were also the main reason for an 11% increase in overall crime recorded in Wexford last year where they more than trebled to a total of 540 cases, although the number of sexual offences was also up 30% while thefts were rose by 10%.

In contrast to most of rural Ireland, crime rates dropped significantly in Dublin city and county last year with just over 78,000 individual offences recorded – down from almost 100,000 in 2019 and a decrease of nearly 5,000 on 2020 figures.

While the number of reported cases of fraud in Dublin rose by 82% to over 6,000 incidents last year, many categories of crime in the capital registered dramatic reductions. Burglaries, public order offences and homicides all dropped in 2021 compared to 2020. 

The 3,577 burglaries reported in Dublin in 2021 – almost 1,600 fewer than the previous year – represented a 30% decrease in the offence.

Despite a re-opening of society and a return of the city’s nightlife business, the incidence of public order offences was down 10%, while drug offences were down 22%.

The number of homicides in Dublin also dropped by 40% with just

14 violent deaths were recorded in Dublin during 2021 compared to 25 in each of the two previous years.

Apart from fraud offences, the only other common types of crime to increase in Dublin last year were breaches of court orders and sexual offences – up 6% and 9% respectively.

Nationally, reductions in crime were recorded in nine of the 14 main categories of offences last year including homicides which were down 50% to 39 and drug offences (down 13%).

Other crime categories on the rise were sexual offences, kidnapping and assaults.

While welcoming the opening up of society after the easing of restrictive measures to combat Covid-19, the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, said there was a need “to be vigilant and mindful of the potential opportunities for criminal activity that the opening up of our society may offer.” 

Commenting on the high rate of increase in fraud offences, Ms McEntee said it was “an unwelcome reality that technology advances that have benefited our society have also created new opportunities for those who seek to engage in fraud and criminality.” 

CSO figures show that the annual number of offences across the 14 main crime categories in all Garda divisions has fallen from over 225,000 in 2019 to less than 188,000 last year – a decrease of 17% on pre-Covid levels.