St Julian’s accounts for 18% of thefts in last four years

18% of all thefts occurring in the past four years occurred in St Julian’s. Between January 2008 and September 2011, 5,202 thefts were reported in the island’s main entertainment Mecca.

This emerges from information presented in parliament last week.

The number of thefts in this locality has increased by 17% between 2008 and 2010.  2011 had already seen 1,437 thefts between January and September – an increase of 21% over 2008 figures.

Sliema and St Paul’s Bay were the second and third most robbed localities, with 2,429 and 2,343 thefts reported respectively in these two localities.

Paola was one of the localities which saw a massive surge of thefts in the first nine months of this year. The number of thefts increased from 196 for the whole of 2010, to 331 in the first nine months of the year: a 68% increase.

Ta’ Xbiex also saw an 82% increase in thefts between 2008 and 2010. Qrendi saw a 76% increase in thefts in the same period.  The trend continued during the first nine months of 2011, which saw 26 thefts in Qrendi (up from 21 in 2008) and 52 thefts in Ta’ Xbiex (up from 46 in 2008). 

Gozitan localities emerge as the safest.  Gharb has only seen 16 thefts in the past four years. Gozo, which accounts for 8% of the Maltese population, only accounted for 3.3% of crimes.

The total number of reported thefts has decreased from 8,127 in 2008 to 7,769 in 2010. In the first nine months of 2011, 6,645 thefts were reported.