Offences involving weapons rise by 36% in Flintshire new figures out today reveal

Figures released by the Office of National Statistics today show recorded crime in Flintshire rose by 1.47% in the 12 months to June 2015.

The figures are part of a statistical release by the Government which come in two parts, crimes recorded by police forces, and those figures published from the Crime Survey for England and Wales  (CSEW) the later are seen as a more accurate reflection of the overall crime picture in Wales and England currently.

There was a total of 7137 offences recorded by North Wales Police in Flintshire in the 12 months to June 2015 – 104 more (+1.47%) than the same period last year.

Across the whole of North Wales a total of 35921 crimes were reported by the police in the 12 months to June 2015 – 1069 less (-2.88%) than the same period last year.

Weapons

Flintshire has seen a 39.36% increase in ‘possession of weapon’ offences in the last 12 months from 36 recorded offences in 2014 to 61 in 2015.

There were 91 more incidents classed as ‘violent without injury’ in 2015 an increase of 34.8% in 12 months, and a 31.6% increase in those deemed ‘miscellaneous crimes against society which included many types of crimes such as perjury, forgery and driving with false documents for example.

The Data

Across Wales and England the CSEW estimate for violent crime showed no significant change compared with the previous year’s survey.

There was a rise in violence against the person offences recorded by the police up by 25% – an additional 163,398 offences.

This was driven by increases within the violence without injury sub-group which was up by 108,701 offences, a 33% increase and the second highest group in Flintshire.

Nationally possession of a knife or sharp instrument increased by 9% to 10,154 offences, whilst other selected offences involving knives and sharp instruments increased by 4% possession of offensive weapons was the highest rising crime group in Flintshire.

Sex Offences

The reporting of sexual offences continues to rise, 210 sex crimes were reported in Flintshire last year, an increase of 14.1% on the previous year.

Sexual offences recorded by the police continued to rise nationally, with the latest figures up 41% on the previous year; equivalent to an additional 27,602 offences.

The numbers of rapes, 31,621 and other sexual offences 63,861 being at the highest level since the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in 2002/03.

As well as improvements in recording, this is also thought to reflect a greater willingness of victims to come forward to report such crimes.

There was an increase of 9% in the volume of fraud offences referred to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau at the City of London Police.

Nearly 600,000 offences were referred to NFIB including 237,494 offences reported by victims to Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud reporting centre, 266,701 referrals from Cifas, a UK-wide fraud prevention service, and 95,489 cases from FFA UK, that represents the UK payments industry such as banks, debit and credit card issuers.