Agricultural crime is down 7% on last year, says PSNI

Agricultural crime is down on last year continuing a long-term trend, according to PSNI statistics.

There were 355 crimes recorded in the previous 12 months - 29 fewer than in 2018/19 - a fall of 7.6%.

It is defined as offences of burglary, robbery and theft where the victim is involved in farming or other agricultural activity.

There has been a downward trend of such crime since a peak in 2010/11 of 937 offences.

A third of the 355 crimes this year involved burglary and robbery.

The other two thirds involved the theft of things like vehicles, equipment and livestock.

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The highest levels of agricultural crime were in Newry, Mourne and Down where there were 54 incidents, although that was 10 fewer incidents than last year.

The next highest was in Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon (49) followed by Mid Ulster (48), Causeway Coast and Glens (46), Fermanagh and Omagh (44), Derry and Strabane (30) and Mid and East Antrim (30).

Antrim and Newtownabbey saw the biggest drop in crimes, down from 40 to 18.