‘Shocking’ toll as rape, fraud and violent crime rocket

VIOLENT crime, rape and fraud have soared in the past year.

Scottish Government figures show that violence rose by 8 per cent and sex crime, including rape, increased by 34 per cent.

In the past two years, fraud has rocketed by 85 per cent – fuelled by a spike in lockdown cyber crime.

The figures compare May 2021 with May 2020 and show that overall offending was down by 3 per cent.

But there were concerns last night that the data suggested lockdown crime was rising because of the SNP’s soft-touch justice policies.

Scottish Tory justice spokesman Jamie Greene said: ‘These shocking figures highlight the difficult task our police face as Scotland comes out of Covid restrictions.

‘The SNP’s soft-touch approach to crime simply abandons victims, undermines hard-working police and lets criminals walk away from punishment, all of which is contributing to a rise in violent crime and fraud.

‘Under the SNP’s regime, many dangerous individuals often avoid jail and are simply sent away with a slap on the wrists.

‘Victims of crime must be at the heart of our justice system, which is precisely why we will introduce a Victims Bill to the Scottish parliament to do just that.’

The new figures show there were 805 crimes of non-sexual violence in May 2021, compared to 744 in May 2020.

Sexual crimes rose from 942 to 1,259. Of these, rape and attempted rape increased by 35 per cent compared with May 2020, from 153 to 206.

Crimes of dishonesty, which include housebreaking, fell by 8 per cent from 8,436 to 7,800. Meanwhile, crimes of fraud have continued to rise throughout the pandemic, increasing by 7 per cent since May 2020 (from 1,441 to 1,549) and up 85 per cent since May 2019 (from 837).

The overall number of crimes fell from 31,931 in May last year to 30,834 in May this year, a decrease of 3 per cent.

But fire-raising and vandalism rose by 13 per cent from 3,324 to 3,757, an increase of 13 per cent. The figures show there were seven murders in May, down from eight in May last year. Dangerous and careless driving offences rose by 11 per cent from 935 to 1,040. Speeding rose 9 per cent from 1,890 to 2,068.

There were 1,434 breaches of coronavirus legislation in May, down from 2,221 in April and 1,654 in May 2020.

The biggest contributors by volume to the overall decrease in crimes recorded by police were Glasgow City (down 9 per cent), South Lanarkshire (down 19 per cent) and North Lanarkshire (down 13 per cent).

Separate crime figures from Police Scotland earlier this month showed that online child sex abuse soared during the past year as police spent £7million enforcing lockdown. The first comprehensive crime audit for 2020-21 showed domestic abuse also rose, while housebreaking fell by a quarter.

A Scottish Government spokesman said there had been a ‘significant reduction of police-recorded non-sexual violent crime of 34 per cent between 2006-07 and 2019-20’.

He added: ‘The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, which includes incidents not reported to the police, also showed a 39 per cent fall in violent incidents experienced by adults in Scotland between 2008-09 and 2019-20.

‘We are committed to ensuring victims’ rights are at the heart of our justice system.’

‘Sent away with slap on wrists’