NEW CRIME FIGURES show there has been a significant increase in burglaries in the twelve months to September, while most other crimes have decreased.

Fraud and deception crimes also grew, while homicide, drug offences and weapons offences all declined during the period.

The figures from the Central Statistics Office show there were a total of 28,706 burglaries or burglary-related offences in the year to September 2012 – an increase of 7.9 per cent on the previous year.

Fraud and deception charges increased by 6.2 per cent to 5,590 incidents over the year.

Homicide offences, which include murder, manslaughter,and dangerous driving leading to death, saw the biggest decline of all crime categories, falling by almost 18 per cent. The number of homicides dropped from 78 in 2011 to 64 in 2012.

Weapons and explosives offences also fell dramatically by 17.4 per cent.

There was a slight decline in the number of sexual offences which fell from 1,989 to 1,976 during the period.

Public order offences, the second-largest category of crime after theft, saw a decrease from 50,986 to 44,874, with disorderly conduct in particular falling dramatically.

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