Crime has dropped since 2003

SERIOUS CRIME has fallen ten per cent in the past five years but drug offences and illegal employment are up significantly, Justice Minister Sophocles Sophocleous said yesterday.
Speaking at a news conference about the work of his ministry, Sophocleous said road accidents and deaths were also down, having fallen 35 per cent since 2003.
Last year, he said there were 81 fatal accidents with 86 deaths “the lowest number in the last 17 years”.

“This figure corresponds to a 13.8 per cent reduction in accidents and a 15.7 per cent reduction in road deaths over 2005,” the Minister said.
This has put Cyprus among the five countries in the EU where a noticeable reduction in road deaths was recorded, Sophocleous added.

So far this year 79 people have died on the roads.
Sophocleous admitted that since 2003, drug offences had increased significantly but he said the police were making noticeable inroads into stopping dealers.
As far as the employment of illegal workers was concerned, he said that from 229 offences in 2003, the cases uncovered had risen to 580 in 2006.
“This is an increase of 60.2 per cent which proves once again the intense activity of the authorities in combating this,” he said.
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The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.