There has been a dramatic drop in the number of people falling victim to phone scams.
New stats from the CSO show they have fallen 41 per cent.
Over 10,300 such offences were committed in the year to quarter one of this year – which is a drop of 41 per cent.
Elsewhere, most other crime categories actually went up in the first quarter of the year.
Homicides and related offences are up significantly at 28 per cent when compared with this time last year.
Attempted murder is up 7 per cent, Robbery and extortion is up 20 per cent and theft rose by 36 per cent.
In the North Western region. attempted murder was up 2%, robbery was up 28%, theft was up 33% and drug offences were down 12%.
Jim Dalton is Statistician in the Crime and Criminal Justice Section of the CSO:
