Drop in recorded property crime in Laois

Property crime in the first three months of this year was down by 11 percent on figures for Laois from last year. 

Garda Superintendent Eamon Curley provided a breakdown of the figures at a quarterly meeting of Laois Joint Policing Committee in Portlaoise. 

That’s despite 11 vehicles being taken in one incident in the county in the first quarter of 2023. 

Supt Curley said there had been no aggravated burglaries during the first three months of 2023 and this was down from three in the first quarter of 2022. He said burglaries for the same period were down from 63 to 51 and there had been detections in 14 of these with “lines of enquiry” being followed in relation to the others. 

Interfering with vehicles stood at 11, up from six in 2022 but five of those related to one particular group who are before the courts or have been dealt with, said Supt Curley. 

There were four robberies which is up from three last year and people were caught in relation to those incidents, he said. 

Thefts stood at 53, down from 63 for the same period last year. Thefts from vehicles are at 10, down from 37 in the first quarter of 2022. There were 137 thefts from shops, up from 126 for the same period last year. He said one bicycle was stolen compared to seven last year. 

Supt Curley said 23 vehicles had been taken in the first quarter of the year, up from 13 during the same time last year. 

“Unusually 11 of those are connected to one particular case. Eleven were taken in one particular incident,” he stated. 

It’s understood the owner of the vehicles discovered they had all been taken from a yard in the county.

“Our total property crime stands at 292 which is down from 327 for the same period last year,” said Supt Curley. 

He said gardai along with the community policing units carried out operations targeting property theft. 

“Gardai conducted a number of operations in relation to property crime during the first three months of 2023,” he explained. 

“We had a day of action in early March involving eight searches and we had seven arrests in the one day including offences for robbery and burglary. Ten charges resulted from that,” he said.  

“We also conducted a number of checkpoints, executed a number of warrants,” he added.