Galway had some of the highest recorded incidents of fraud, forgery, false imprisonment offences as well as counterfeit and incidents of importation/control/welfare of animals for a two year period, according to the Garda Recorded Crime Statistics released recently by the Central Statistics Office (CSO ).
The report released last week by the CSO showed that during 2010 and 2011 Galway maintained the second place slot (outside of the Dublin Metropolitan Region ) for the number of incidents of recorded fraud, forgery, and false imprisonment offences. In 2010, there were 178 incidents, with a detection rate of 55.6 per cent and 62 court proceedings - Limerick had higher incidences with 180 reported. In 2011, the number of recorded incident increased to 204, with a detection rate of 46.6 per cent and 51 court proceedings - this time it was Cork city that had higher with 225 reported.
The only time that Galway surpassed Dublin was with the number of incidents of counterfeiting and related offences recorded - Galway shared the top spot in 2010 with Tipperary with 43 offences recorded, a detection rate of 62.8 per cent and 15 court proceedings. In 2011, Galway’s standing significantly dropped with 23 incidents reported, a detection rate of 56.5 per cent and six court proceedings.
Another area where Galway featured highly - or badly as the case may be - was with the importation/control/welfare of animals offences retaining the second highest rate per capita, behind Limerick, in both years. In 2010, there were 166 incidents reported, however, the detection rate was quite low at 30.1 per cent and only 25 proceedings followed. In 2011, 178 incidents were reported to gardai which resulted in a lower detection rate of 25.8 per cent and 13 proceedings.
Galway was the third highest, both in 2010 and in 2011, for incidents of reported disorderly conduct behind Cork City (3,928 in 2010 and 3,712 in 2011 ) and South Central Dublin Metropolitan Region (3,938 in 2010 and 3,896 in 2011 ). There were 3,075 reported incidents in 2010 with a detection rate of 95.2 per cent and 1,035 proceedings and 2,423 in 2011 with a detection rate of 98.1 per cent and 786 court proceedings. Thefts were also significantly high in Galway in 2010 with 2,444 incidents recorded, the third highest outside of Dublin behind Cork City (3,685 ) and Limerick (3,359 ) - there was a detection rate of 41.7 per cent and 455 proceedings. Galway’s ranking dropped one place in 2011 with 2,077 incidents recorded, a detection rate of 45 per cent and 413 proceedings - Kildare took the third place spot with 2,500 incidents.
There was a significantly high detection rate for recorded driving licences and insurance offences in Galway. In 2010, there were 1,006 recorded incidents, with a detection rate of 99.7 per cent, and resulting in 770 proceedings. In 2011, there were 840 recorded incidents, with a detection rate of 99.6 per cent and resulting in 687 proceedings. In 2010, Galway scored quite highly with the number of recorded tax/registration offences coming in third place with 3,632 behind Cork City (3,759 incidents ) and Cork North (4,413 incidents ). There was a detection rate of 99.6 per cent resulting in 1,181 court proceedings. In 2011, Galway was again in third place with 3,717 incidents recorded, behind Clare (4,070 ) and Cork North (5,108 ) with a detection rate of 99.7 per cent and 1,186 proceedings.
Galway had the highest number of incidents of recorded assaults in the Western region for both 2010 and 2011. There were 1,632 incidents of assaults during 2011 in the entire western region - Galway, Clare, Mayo, Roscommon/ Longford - a decrease from the 2010 figure of 1,674. In Galway, the number of recorded incidents in 2010 was 647 with a detection rate of 77.4 per cent. The figure rises to 724 recorded incidents in 2011, with a detection rate of 76 per cent resulting in 272 going to court. Outside of Dublin, Galway was fourth behind Cavan/Monaghan (684 ), Cork city (912 ), Limerick (810 ) in 2010. A year later, Galway rose to third place, behind Cork city (924 ) and Limerick (733 ).
The report also looked at the number of homicide offences with 66 recorded nationally in 2011, representing a decrease of almost 27 per cent on the 90 recorded offences in 2010 - the number of such serious offences have decreased every year since 2007. Nationally, there were 45 recorded murder/ manslaughter/infanticide offences in 2011, compared to 28 incidents in 2010. In the entire western region there were eight recorded incidents of murder /manslaughter /infanticide in 2011, seven of these were detected (87.5 per cent rate ) and all seven resulted in relevant proceedings. For Galway, there were three reported incidents with 100 per cent detection rate and all three resulting in court proceedings. The number of recorded incidents of attempts/threats to murder in Galway increased from eight in 2010 to 12 in 2011. Of the six offences in 2011 two resulted in court proceedings
