Rural burglaries up despite sharp fall in Galway county crime

Date Published: 14-Apr-2010

By Dara Bradley

Overall crime in County Galway has fallen sharply in the first three months of this year but worryingly the scourge of rural burglaries continues to rise, new Garda figures show.

There were a total of 113 rural burglaries carried out in County Galway between January and March of this year – a 5.6% increase on 2009, a year which had already shown a huge jump in the incidences of burglaries.

The numbers of drink driving detections fell by almost a quarter to 82 in the three months, which represents a 23.4% reduction on the same period last year.

The figures are contained in Chief Superintendent Dónall Ó Cualáin’s crime report which was presented to the County Galway Policing Committee by Superintendent Marie Skehill on Monday.

The report notes that there were 3,763 incidences of crime recorded in County Galway in the first three months of this year – a reduction of 22% in overall crime. The figures for Co Galway exclude crimes recorded in the city.

Theft from vehicles during this period fell by 31% to 45; thefts from shops fell by 2.3% to 43; and ‘other’ thefts increased by 9.8% to 135.

Read more in this week’s Connacht Tribune