Fraud offences up by 26%; drug-related offences see 17% increase
Gardaí have recorded an increase of 26% in fraud cases in 2019 compared to 2018 according to statistics released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The numbers have jumped from 6,296 reported cases in 2018 to 7,944 cases in 2019.
There was also a 17% rise in drug-related offences recorded by the Gardaí with 21,475 cases recorded last year, up from 18,309 cases in 2018.
The CSO said the majority of these people were caught with drugs for personal use.
In 2019, there were over 1,250 incidents of people driving under the influence of drugs, up from approximately 500 the previous year.
There was a 7.9% increase in 2019 for cases related to attempted murder or threats of murder, assault and harassment with 1,587 incidents recorded.
There were 25 attempted murders last year, with 1,269 threats to kill.
There was a decrease in homicide offences recorded in 2019 by 37.5% however the CSO have cautioned that this figure may rise as investigations into fatal road collisions continue.
The number of incidents of murder and manslaughter fell from 47 incidents in 2018 to 39 in 2019.
Gardaí also recorded an increase in sexual offences up from 3,182 cases in 2018 to 3,307 cases in 2019, a rise of 3.9%.
Meanwhile, 2019 saw the numbers of crimes related to robbery, hijacking and extortion fall by 3.9%.
