Fraud, deception and related offences in the Shannonside region saw a significant spike in the latter end of last year.
New crime figures for the region show offences involving fake text messages or emails grew significantly in the 12 months up to quarter four of last year
The CSO has released their Recorded Crime figures for quarter 4 and also saw increases in kidnapping and sexual offences.
The number of fraud crimes recorded in 2021 more than doubled by the end of the year.
Overall, figures from the CSO show that 16,929 frauds were recorded by Gardai, up 116 per cent on the 2020 figure.
In Roscommon/Longford the offence almost trebled from 44 to 121 between quarter four of 2021 and the final three months of last year and in Sligo-Leitrim, the number of offences grew from 34 to 95 in the space of 12 months.
In Sligo-Leitrim thefts from shops doubled from 39 to 80 offences year on year with burglary also increasing.
Public order offences also rose slightly as the economy re-opened late last year in the north-west.
Across the region, a total of a total of 57 drivers were detected by local gardaí drinking or drug driving;
up from 44 detections the year before.
Gardai in Longford/Roscommon also detected three litter offences late last year - up from zero previously.
