THERE HAS BEEN a 41% decrease in the number of reported fraud incidents in the year to the first quarter of 2023.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today published the latest recorded crime statistics, which cover the period in the year to the end of March.

However, the CSO notes that reported incidents in most other crime categories increased when compared to the same period a year previous.

There were 10,366 reported incidents involving fraud and deception, a 41% decrease when compared to Q1 of 2022.

Jim Dalton, statistician in the crime and criminal justice section, said this decrease is “due mostly to a fall in in incidents of unauthorised transactions and attempts to obtain personal or banking information online or by phone”.

Theft offences meanwhile were up by 36% when compared to the year previous, with 69,340 reported incidents.

Thefts from shops accounted for close to half of this increase, with 29,172 reported incidents in the year to Q1 of 2023..

There was also a 20% increase in incidents of robbery, extortion and hijacking, with 2,179 reported incidents,

There was also a 28% increase in homicide and related offences at 68.

This was mainly driven by an increase in the number of crime incidents of murder, which rose from 20 to 48.

The number of reported sexual offences increased by 2%, to 3,660, while reported of attempts and threats to murder, assaults, harassments increased by 7% to 23,489.

And while there was virtually no change in the number of burglaries, standing at 9,246 in the year to Q1 of 2023, this was a marked decreased to pre-pandemic levels, when there were 16,741 incidents in the same period of 2019.

Statistic standards

The statistics from the CSO have been published “under reservation”, meaning they do not meet the standard of statistics officially published by the organisation.

The sole source of data for recorded crime data is the Pulse system used internally by An Garda Siochana.

In 2014, the Garda Inspectorate report identified quality issues in relation to the recording of data on the PULSE system, leading the CSO to suspend publication of the data.

This has led to ongoing reviews and suspensions of publishing data.

As of Q1 in 2018, the quality of the data did not meet the CSO’s standards for completeness and accuracy.

But the absence of regular, impartial and transparently produced crime statistics is said to create a vacuum for policymakers and citizens.

As such, the CSO felt that the “over-riding public interest” was best served by the resumption of publication of recorded crime statistics, categorised as “under reservation” to highlight the quality issues.

It means the figures are likely to be revised, particularly in homicide cases, where there is an ongoing review of incidents between 2003 and 2017.

-With additional reporting from Press Association