Crime in North Ayrshire dropped slightly in 2022 despite a rise in violent crimes according to figures released by the Scottish Government.

The new document shows that while there were 7255 recorded crimes in 2021, the number fell to 6985 in 2022.

However, while crime overall saw a decrease, non-sexual violent crimes rose by 10 per cent from 1579 in 2021 to 1733 in 2022 with common assault cases rising from 1372 to 1512.

Shoplifting also saw an increase of 12 per cent from 724 to 809 reported crimes while fraud cases climbed by five per cent from 290 to 305 – however, all over crimes of dishonesty fell.

Damage and reckless behaviour increased by almost 100 cases rose from 1112 to 1205 with cases of vandalism seeing the biggest increase going from 1000 to 1062.

Despite sexual violence crimes falling from 321 to 293, cases of rape and attempted rape saw a small increase from 62 cases in 2021 to 67 in 2022.

Crimes against society also dropped across the board and in all areas except possession of weapons which increased by 12 per cent for unused weapons and 16 per cent for used weapons.

Read the full report on the data table found here: www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-year-ending-december-2022/documents.