Latest figures indicate massive increase in theft offences in Louth

There has been a massive increase in the number of theft and related offences recorded in the Louth Garda Division this year, according to the latest crime figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

According to the CSO release, Recorded Crime Q2 2023, 543 theft and related offences were recorded in Louth in the second quarter (Q2) of this year, up from 486 in the first quarter (Q1) and up 213, or 65% on the same period last year.

1,029 theft and related offences were recorded in Louth in the first half of this year, up from 913 in the last half of 2022, and up from 681 in the first half of 2022, representing a 51% increase.

Theft/taking of vehicle and related offences have seen some of the biggest increases in Louth, with 64 recorded in Q2, the same as recorded in Q1, but have more than trebled the 21 recorded in the first quarter of last year.

With 128 of these type of offences recorded in the Louth Garda Division in the first half of this year, the figure is more than the 114 recorded in the whole of 2022.

Theft from a shop also increased significantly in the first half of this year in Louth, with 289 offences recorded in Q2, up from 236 in Q1 and up from 161 (or 80%) in Q2 of last year.

The CSO Recorded Crime statistics continue to be categorised by the CSO as Under Reservation. This categorisation indicates that the quality of these statistics do not meet the standards required of official statistics published by the CSO. 

The classification statistics Under Reservation has been applied to reflect the fact that there are data quality issues in the underlying sources used to compile these statistics. 

To find out more about this categorisation, see the CSO explanation here.