Burglary and theft offences reached a nine-year low during the first three months of 2010.

The Bermuda Police Service released its quarterly bulletin of crime statistics yesterday, which showed crimes against property were down 10 percent compared to the last three months in 2009 and were at a nine-year low.

In total there were 720 crimes against property during the first quarter of 2010. These included burglary, motor vehicle theft, theft of property and criminal damage.

Yesterday Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva said: "To give this a context, crime against property has decreased over 30 percent in 18 months since the high of 1,039 offences in the third quarter of 2008.

"Recently we arrested a group of individuals who were prolific priority offenders, they were operating in a ring and stealing electronic equipment and selling it for cash. We know that a small number of criminals commit a large number of crimes on the Island so we know that when some of them are locked up you will see a dip in the level of crime. "

In total there were 30 residential burglaries during the quarter and five non-residential burglaries. There was also 16 motor vehicle thefts and 87 incidents of theft of property.