Drug, fraud offenses up sharply in Ireland in Q1

The numbers of drug offenses and fraud offenses in Ireland went up sharply in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, showed the figures released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Thursday, reported Xinhua.

In Q1, a total of 22,166 drug offenses were recorded in the country, up 15.7 percent year on year. The percentage increase was the highest among all the categories of crime incidents recorded in Q1, showed the CSO figures.

A significant increase was also seen in the number of fraud offenses during the period, which rose 14.9 percent to 7,898 from 6,872 in Q1 2019.

Local media reported that there was a sharp rise in online fraud offenses in Ireland as a result of surging online purchases during the COVID-19 crisis, which started to hit the country at the end of February.

The sharpest drop was seen in the number of homicide offenses, which fell by 16.9 percent to 59 in Q1 from 71 recorded in the same quarter of last year.

The CSO figures also showed that theft is the most common crime in Ireland. A total of 67,038 theft offenses were recorded in the country in Q1, down 0.4 percent over a year ago.