Kidnappings and fraud on rise as homicides decline

FRAUD crimes have soared by 43% in the last year, which has been driven by banking and online scams, new statistics show.

There were 16,202 fraud, deception and related offences in the second quarter of the year, a rise of 4,877 compared to 2021.

Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures also show a rise in most categories of recorded crime. The highest rates of increase were for kidnapping and other related offences; which rose by 36%; theft, up by 23%; and attempts and threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences, which increased by 21%.

Homicide offences fell by 38% over the year, while controlled drug offences dropped by 27%, and weapons and explosives offences declined by 11%.

Male victims of attempts and threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences increased by 20% from a year earlier, compared with a 6% increase in female victims.

Jim Dalton, CSO statistician in the crime and criminal justice section, said: ‘Most categories of crime were up in the 12 months to June 2022 compared with a year earlier. Fraud crime showed the highest rate of increase, with 16,202 frauds recorded in the 12-month period compared to 11,325 a year earlier.

‘This increase was largely driven by unauthorised transactions and attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone.

‘The figures for 2020 and 2021 for some crime categories are likely to have been influenced by the [Covid] restrictions.’

There were increases in eight of the 14 categories of recorded crime compared to a year ago. Burglary was up 29%, while robbery, extortion and hijacking offences rose by 28%. Incidences of damage to property and the environment rose 16%.

The analysis indicates that, in volume terms, the impact of these on recorded crime statistics is negligible for the period in question, the CSO said.

On the issue of cancelled CAD incidents, Mr Dalton added: ‘The premature or improper cancellation of incidents on the CAD system may mean that records relating to crimes, which were reported to AGS [the gardaí], were not created on the Pulse system, and are therefore not counted in recorded crime statistics.

‘[Gardaí] carried out an investigation which focused only on the most serious high-risk crimes... 141 would have resulted in a criminal incident being recorded on Pulse. All 141 missing Pulse incidents have since been created... This has [had] a negligible effect on published crime statistics for the 21-month period in question.’