The number of fraud offences recorded by gardaí increased by more than 34% in the year to June, new figures show.

There were 7,265 incidents of fraud recorded over the 12 months between June 2018 and June 2019.

This was an increase from 5,405, according to crime data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.

That category saw the biggest jump in recorded incidents, followed by kidnapping which rose by almost 23%.

Drug offences also increased by 16%.

The upward trend in reported sexual offences continued, up by 9% on the previous 12-month period.

There were 3,286 incidents recorded in the year to June.

Homicide and related offences saw the biggest decline over the 12 months, down by 40% to 56.

The only other areas which saw a decline were burglary and property damage.

The figures also reflect a technical revision carried out by the gardaí to amend 156 PULSE records of dangerous driving causing death from 2003 to 2019.

These incidents, which represent a fifth of all such cases over the 16 years, had been identified as having the wrong reported date.

The figures released today were categorised as Under Reservation, meaning that they do not meet the standards required of official statistics published by the CSO.

Crime statistics have been released by the CSO under this categorisation since 2017 as a result of concerns over the accuracy of data from the garda PULSE system.

Main image: File photo of a garda station. Credit: Niall Carson/PA Archive/PA Images