Theft from retail stores in the Goulburn-Mulwaree LGA has risen by 70.2 per cent from 2016 to 2017, the latest figures from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) show.
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State wide, the offence ‘steal from retail store’ was the only major offence that had increased over the 24 months to December 2017.
It did so by 3.9 per cent across the state.
From January 2017 to December 2017, steal from retail store in the Goulburn-Mulwaree LGA sat at 474.3 per 100,000 people.
Statewide the figures sat at 316 per 100,000 people.
In terms of individual incidents, the Goulburn-Mulwaree LGA had 84 incidents of retail theft in the 2016 calendar year.
This compares with 143 in the 2017 calendar year.
Hume Police District Crime Manager Keith Price said the increase can be attributed to a number of factors including social issues and the design and layout of the larger retail store.
“Due to the open and easy access to the premises it makes it far easier for our opportunistic people to commit the crime as it easy to get out of the store with the goods,” Mr Price said.
Mr Price said one of the main reasons for the increase of numbers is not that the crime is happening more but detection has improves.
“Unfortunately one of the by-products of Police proactively running operations and targeting retail theft is increased detection/reporting rates,” he said.
“Whilst there has been an increase in The Hume PD over that period we are also running at a 74% legal action rate. Meaning three quarters of the offenders are detected and prosecuted.”
The BOSCAR statistics also show that over the last five years fraud has increased by 8.7 per cent, however malicious damage to property has decreased by 8.9 percent.
Over the five year period, breach of bail conditions has risen by 33.8 per cent.
When it comes to alcohol related crimes, the report shows 41 per cent of non-domestic violence related assault and 31.5 per cent of domestic violence related assault were alcohol linked.
According to the report, statewide, the four offences trending down were break and enter of a dwelling, which was down by 6.5 per cent, the break and enter of a non-dwelling, which was down by 9.8 per cent, steal from person, which was down by 8.3 per cent, and fraud, which was down by 4.8 per cent.
Some areas of regional NSW saw statistical increases in some recorded crimes.
New England and the North West saw robbery without a weapon increase by 54.3 percent, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie saw break and enter of a non-dwelling increase by 16.9 per cent, the Riverina saw break and enter of a non-dwelling increase 20.8 per cent and the Murray saw motor vehicle theft increase by 25.8 per cent.
