ASSAULTS across the Tamworth area continue to fall but there was a rise in break-ins to homes, the latest crime snapshot of the state shows.
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The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) released its latest data on Monday revealing the rates of home burglary and car thefts are the lowest since records began in NSW.
And the Armidale Dumaresq area joined the statewide trend, with robbery without a weapon falling from 10 incidents in 2015 to four, last year.
Armed robberies in the Armidale area also fell from 13 incidents to 3 in 2016, while there were no firearms used in robberies in the town last year.
Across NSW, robberies with a firearm or a weapon fell by 13 per cent.
"Most people don't realise it but rates of robbery in NSW are now back to where they were in the late 1970s,” BOCSAR Director Dr Don Weatherburn said on Monday on the release of the report.
“Rates of home burglary and motor vehicle theft are the lowest they've been since records began."
But across the Tamworth Regional Council area, the rate of home burglaries or thefts from homes, jumped 80 incidents in 2016 on 2015.
There were 327 stealings from homes, up from 247 in 2015.
Robbery without a weapon rose from five to nine incidents in 2016, while robbery with a firearm dropped from one to zero in 2016.
Robberies in Tamworth with a weapon that’s not a firearm remained stable at eight incidents in both 2015 and 2016.
Break-ins to homes jumped from 428 to 493 in 2015-16, while 25 less businesses were break into in the Tamworth area, last year.
Locals also reported 49 more thefts from their vehicles and fraud continued to spike – like previous crime snapshots in Tamworth – from 223 to 331 reports.
Oxley police have continually maintained the rise in fraud is the result of the popularity of paywave technology, allowing thieves to make multiple purchases in quick succession under $100 with stolen cards.
But on the flipside, the Tamworth area bucked the statewide trend in shoplifting, with rates falling from 300 incidents in 2015 to 265 reports, last year.
Malicious damage reports to property also dropped by 56 incidents to 798 reports in 2016.
In Armidale, break-and-enters to homes dropped dramatically from 446 to 276 in 2016, but 65 more businesses fell victim to thieves.
Thefts from cars almost doubled from 263 to 499 in Armidale, with the council area recording noticeable spikes in six of the 17 categories, and reductions in five crime areas.
The rate of fraud more than doubled in the town from 2015 to 2016 but 37-less incidents of domestic violence-related assaults were recorded.