2,000 people charged in burglaries crackdown

on 18/01/2013 00:00:00

More than 3,500 people have been arrested under Operation Fiacla, established last March to curb the surge in break-ins across the country.

Figures for the operation show that between Apr 1 2012 and Dec 31:

*3,528 people have been arrested.

*1,924 people have been so far charged.

Of the charges, in the region of 600 have been taken in the Dublin region, with about 1,300 charges in the rest of the country.

Figures published yesterday in the Irish Examiner showed that one in 222 people in Ireland was the victim of burglary in the first nine months of 2012.

The figures show Dublin and surrounding counties have the highest incidence.

Louth tops the table, with one in 142 residents being burgled. It is followed by Wicklow (one in 150); Dublin (one in 159); Kildare (one in 173); Kilkenny/Carlow (one in 187); and Meath (one in 192).

The counties with the lowest incidence are mainly in the west, the border counties and the south.

Kerry scored the lowest (one in 571), followed by Donegal (one in 478), Cork (one in 441), Clare (one in 425), Cavan/Monaghan (one in 389), and Mayo (one in 367). Overall, there were 20,655 reported burglaries in the first nine months of 2012, compared with 19,644 in the same period in 2011.

However, Alan Shatter, the justice minister, pointed out that the number of burglaries dropped as 2012 went on, from a peak in the first quarter of 8,004 to 6,019 in the second quarter and 6,632 in the third quarter.