Gardaí have appealed to building and agricultural material providers who may have been victims of theft in recent months to come forward and report these crimes.
Gardaí are currently investigating a number of reports of people calling to retail premises and providing fraudulent credit card details in order to purchase building and agricultural material.
Once the transaction is authorised, the perpetrators leave the premises with the goods.
It is only later discovered by the retailer that the card details provided were fraudulent.
Several such incidents have already been reported to gardaí, with an apparent increase in this type of criminal activity since December.
The reported thefts of this type and method since then have been reported in the following counties:
- Leitrim;
- Westmeath;
- Kildare;
- Monaghan;
- Tipperary;
- Laois;
- Meath;
- Waterford;
- Clare;
- Limerick;
- Kerry;
- Offaly;
- Cork;
- Wexford.
These incidents have predominately occurred at hardware stores, building providers, and local agricultural co-operatives.
An incident room has now been established at Thurles Garda Station in Co. Tipperary as part of efforts to tackle this spate of thefts.
A senior investigating officer has been appointed to lead those efforts.
Gardaí have appealed for any potential victims of these crimes, at any location, and who have not already reported such incidents, to contact Thurles Garda Station, the Garda Confidential line, or any garda station, so that a full investigation can be conducted.
Gardaí urge security on farmyards
In other news, farmers have this week been urged by gardaí to assess, and if necessary improve, security on their holdings.
The comments from Sgt. Damian Bartley, crime prevention officer for Roscommon/Longford, follow reports of thefts from farms across Longford and Roscommon in recent weeks.
Opportunist thieves can strike at any time of the year, particularly in poorly lit rural areas.
“A typical farmer will have a lot of expensive tools and machinery on their farms that can cost tens of thousands of euros to replace, if stolen,” Sgt. Bartley said.
“That’s before you even take into consideration the serious inconvenience that having equipment stolen will cause,” he added.