Fraud jumped in 2025 even as number of major crimes fell – gardaí

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

There was a surge in reports of fraud in Ireland in 2025, despite a fall in most major crimes, newly released Garda figures show.

An Garda Síochána’s provisional crime statistics for last year reveal fraud and economic crimes were up 137 per cent compared with 2024.

There were large increases in offences involving deception, up 273 per cent; forgery, up 160 per cent; shopping or online auctions, up 183 per cent; and money laundering, up 164 per cent.

There were, however, significant reductions in the use of counterfeit cash which was down 77 per cent and insurance fraud which was down 43 per cent.

Gardaí did attribute some of the rise in reports of fraud to a “backlog” on reporting from previous years.

But they said the surge in fraud was also fuelled by online offending.

Harmful communications, another digitally driven crime, was among the few other categories to see a large increase.

There were 750 incidents reported in 2025 compared with just under 600 in 2024, with the distribution of ‘grossly offensive communication’ up 68 per cent.

There were fewer reported instances of most major crimes and gardaí pointed to CSO figures which show Ireland recorded a 7 per cent reduction in overall crime between 2019 and 2024, despite the population increasing by 9.3 per cent since 2019.

The new figures showed the number of robberies, where something is stolen with the use or threat of force, lowered significantly.

That meant in Dublin alone there were 230 fewer robberies in 2025 compared with 2024.

Burglaries also fell, with the north-west seeing the most dramatic reduction after the number of non-aggravated burglaries fell by 34 per cent.

Gardaí say this is part of the success of Operation Thor, which actively targets organised crime gangs and repeat offenders.

They say it has reduced the number of residential burglaries by 75 per cent in a decade.

The figures also give a snapshot of the impact of other Garda activity.

They say during the year their teams seized €147 million worth of illegal drugs and around €6 million worth of cash and gold.

They say there were more demonstrations last year compared to 2024, around 1,300 around 12 per cent more than 2024.

But the numbers also reveal some of the darkest parts of Irish life and society.

188 people were killed on Irish roads in 2025, in a year where the total number of crashes went up by 4 per cent.

And gardaí said they received almost 67,000 calls about domestic abuse last year, nearly 1,300 every week.

The number of murder and manslaughter offences remained the same as 2024, but it still meant 40 people died at the hands of others in 2025.