Tag Archives: Clare crime

CLARE gardai have urged caution when renting properties after reports of one woman being scammed this week. Clare crime prevention officer Sergeant Triona Brooks said, “During the week we received a report from a lady who saw an advert on Facebook Marketplace for a property to rent in Dublin. “She presumed it was legitimate and paid a month’s rent and a deposit totalling €1,463.00. She has since realised that the property never existed.” Sergeant Brooks has appealed for caution to avoid being tricked into paying a deposit for a property that does not exist or has already been rented, often to multiple people. She said that people should do their homework – look at the average rent price in the area and if the rent is unusually low and it seems too good to be true it usually is. Potential renters should use online maps, she advised, to double check that the property being advertised actually exists and is at …

GARDAI have urged caution when engaging people to do work on their properties. Clare crime prevention officer Sergeant Triona Brooks reported a recent cautionary incident. “A few months ago a lady began communicating with a person purporting to be a tradesman on a Facebook community page. “She asked him would he do a job that she needed done in her house – he subsequently called to her, a price was agreed and the lady paid three separate instalments of a large sum of money into this person’s account. He has since deleted his page from Facebook and has never carried out the work paid for. “We would urge people to only use recommended genuine tradespeople. “If anxious or you think that there are bogus callers/trades people in your area contact your local Garda Station. If you think you have been scammed contact your bank as soon as you can to report the matter.”

THIS month’s meeting of the Joint Policing Committee (JPC) in Clare revealed a staggering 105% increase in thefts from shops in the county from 2021 to 2022. The figure was revealed by Chief Superintendent Sean Colleran in his briefing to local politicians at the start of the month and covered the first four months of each year. Gardai in Clare have also revealed that Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are the most common days for thefts from shops and almost two thirds of all thefts from shops occur between 12 noon and 6 p.m. In an effort to help shop owners take action against potential theft, they have issued advice on the types of shoplifters out there and how to identify them. Opportunist: Could be anyone, unattended goods taken / little risk of getting caught. Persistent: Regular thief, mixing purchased goods with stolen goods, could be a frequent customer. Young people: usually engage in thefts in groups through peer pressure. Substance …

ONE third of residential burglaries last summer involved entry through an unsecured door or window, with summer burglaries more likely in the afternoon than winter burglaries, gardaí in Clare have revealed. With summer holidays on the horizon, gardaí in Clare have issued advice to homeowners on ways to protect their homes from burglars. Crime Prevention Officer Sergeant Triona Brooks says, “Operation Thor summer burglary campaign is ongoing with targeting of organised criminal gangs. “Operation Thor and ongoing community engagement has resulted in dramatic drops in burglary. Less residential burglaries are reported in the summer than in the winter. “Residential burglaries during the summer are more likely to occur in the afternoon than winter burglaries. “An unsecured door or window is a more common entry point in the summer than in the winter and one third of residential burglaries last summer involved entry through an unsecured door or window. “As we come into the summer months, we want to remind people …

THE reopening of society has contributed to a surge in reported crime in Clare, the joint policing committee heard this week. Among the headline figures were a 90% increase in burglaries; a 105% increase in thefts from shops; a 59% increase in detections of drink/drug driving and a 34% increase in domestic disputes. At this week’s meeting of the Clare Joint Policing Committee, Chief Superintendent Sean Colleran said that there have been dramatic increases in some categories of crime in the early part of 2022 compared to 2021. He added however that that was down to the relaxation of Covid restrictions, and the figures are not significantly worse than pre-pandemic. Clare’s most senior garda gave a presentation to the meeting which showed that in the January to April period of last year Clare had just 29 burglaries, but the figure was 55 for the same period of 2022, a rise of 90%. Thefts from shops increased from 55 in the …

BOGUS tradesmen who are travelling to Clare and ripping off vulnerable people should be banned from entering the county, said Deputy Cathal Crowe at Monday’s meeting of the Clare Joint Policing Committee. He said one group of what he called “bogus tradesmen” from the North Kerry area have been in Clare since last winter. “They don’t operate that covertly at all,” he warned. Deputy Crowe said they had been in his own area of South East Clare, in Kilrush and in Gort, and distributed the same advertising material in each area. He said they charge for work that they fail to carry out correctly and that they are “cleaning out older people to the tune of tens of thousands”. Detective Inspector Padraic Frawley said that in many cases the victims of such crimes had been among the most vulnerable members of the community. He said there had been fewer than ten such cases reported over the last few years, but …

GARDAI are appealing for the public’s assistance following a stabbing in Kilrush over the weekend. On Saturday night, May 28, a man in his mid-30s presented at Kilrush Garda Station with a stab wound to his lower back. He outlined that at 10.50 p.m. at Crawford Street, Kilrush, he was stabbed from the rear by an unknown male. He was removed by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick for treatment. If anyone was in the area of Crawford Street around this time and witnessed this incident or anyone that may have dash cam footage gardai are asking them to contact Kilrush Garda Station on 9080550.

MORE than €1,000 worth of suspected drugs have been seized by gardaí in recent days as part of Operation Tara. Shortly before 1.30pm on Thursday, May 12 detectives attached to the Divisional Drugs Unit conducted a search under warrant at a house in the Clarecastle area. During the course of this search in excess of €1,000 worth of suspected cocaine, and a quantity of cannabis herb was seized. A male and female both in their early thirties were arrested at the scene and detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 at Ennis Garda Station. Both have since been released from custody and a file is now being prepared for submission to the DPP. This seizure forms part of Operation Tara an enhanced national anti-drugs strategy, which was launched by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris on July 2, 2021. The focus of Operation Tara is to disrupt, dismantle and prosecute drug trafficking networks, at all levels, international, national, local, …