Theft & Related offences jump by 25% in Louth
Thefts from shops in Louth rose by 23% according to figures released yesterday by the CSO
There was a rise in theft related offences in the Louth Garda Division in the final Quarter of 2023 when compared with the same period the year before according to crime figures released yesterday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The figures come as theft offences have risen nationally with shoplifting offences also skyrocketing.
In its release, Recorded Crime Q4 2023, the CSO figures show that 527 Theft & Related offences were recorded in the Louth Garda Division in the fourth quarter (Q4) of last year.
It is up from 421 in Q4, of 2022 and represents an increase of 106 or 25%.
Theft from shops stood at 238 in the final quarter of last year, an increase of 45 or 23% on the same period the year before.
Meanwhile, Other thefts, handling stolen property rose from 182 to 207 in a year, an increase of 14%.
Other notable increases showed that Damage to property and to the environment offences increased from 207 to 187 as did Criminal Damage offences which rose from 172 to 184.
Offences that decreased included Attempts/threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences which fell from 204 to 175 a 14% decrease.
Burglary and related offences fell from 81 to 65 while Burglary (not aggravated) fell from 76 to 62.
Public order and other social code offences also saw a large decrease from 315 to 242, a 235, a 23% decrease.
Elsewhere Disorderly conduct fell 20% from 283 to 227.
Nationally, the CSO figures showed recorded crime incidents of Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences were up by 26% or by 531 to 2,601 incidents between 2022 and 2023. Most of this increase was accounted for by Blackmail or Extortion and Robbery from the Person offences.
Theft & Related offences were up by 12% or 8,169 to 74,144 incidents over the same period. About half (46%) of the increase in the number of incidents were due to Theft from Shops.
There were also small increases in recorded crime incidents relating to Weapons & Explosives offences (+5%), Damage to Property & the Environment (+3%) and Burglary & Related offences (+1%). The number of recorded incidents of Controlled Drug offences remained virtually unchanged over the year.
By contrast, incidents of Homicide & Related offences were down by 19% from 80 to 65 incidents over the same period. This was due mostly to a fall in incidents of Murder. Recorded incidents of Sexual offences were down 11% to 3,354 incidents.
All other crime categories fell over the year with the highest rates of decrease being for Public Order & Other Social Code offences (-8%) and Dangerous or Negligent Acts (-7%). The number of recorded crime incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences fell by 3% to 11,292 over the year.