Garda concern as theft from shops rise across Limerick

SOCIAL code offences such as bestiality, bigamy and begging more than doubled during the third quarter of this year, new figures have revealed.

The figures from the Central Statistics Office, show there were 100 reported incidents across the Limerick garda division during July, August and September compared to 44 in the previous quarter. There were 35 incidents during the third quarter of 2017.

Social code offences include a number of different types of offences and a detailed breakdown is not included in the figures, which have been published ‘under reservation’.

The increase is partially due to a reclassifcation of certain offences over the past 12 months.

According to the figures, the number of robbery incidents in Limerick almost doubled from 12 to 23 while there were 209 reported burglaries.

While this was down from 237 during April, May and June, it was up from 178 during the same period last year.

A significant area of concern for gardai was the six percent rise in incidents of shoplifting.

According to the figures, there were 378 reported incidents of thefts from shops over the three month period. This compares to 353 during the previous quarter and 309 during the same period in 2017.

The number of sexual offences reported to gardai during the third quarter of 2018 increased slightly to 27 while there were four incidents of child neglect or cruelty.

The number of drugs seizures fell during July, August and September although this may be as a result of a new garda strategy to actively target significant figures in the drugs industry,

There were 31 detections for sale and supply over the three month period and 99 incidents of people being caught with drugs for their own personal use.