Fraud offences in Clare are now at their highest point ever recorded.
New crime data from the Central Statistics Office suggests 111 such offences were recorded by Gardai in this county in the last three months of 2021.
Members of Clare’s Joint Policing Committee heard in February how the possibility of a dedicated Economic Fraud Investigation Unit being set up in this county for the first time is being seriously examined.
Data from the CSO appears to suggest why, with the 111 fraud-type offences documented here between October and December being a 30 percent increase on the three months prior.
It’s nearly three times the number of such offences recorded in Clare in the same timeframe in 2020, and a near tenfold increase on such incidents being documented by Gardai a decade ago.
The latest round of statistics show drink driving figures here are also at their highest level since the end of 2018.
Burglaries and thefts remain stagnant here, though the number of drugs offences dropped by over a third year-on-year.
Property damage and criminal damage offences have also dipped slightly.
Public order offences jumped by around 40 percent compared to the same three months in 2020, while offences while in custody, including breaches of court orders, also jumped between October and December.
