THE Alpine Shire criminal offence rate has increased significantly compared to the previous year, but still remains well below the state average.

According to Crime Statistics Victoria, the Alpine Shire recorded 519 offences in the year ending December 2023 – significantly up from the 459 offences recorded in the same period the previous year.

The offence rate per 100,000 population for Alpine was 3921.7 compared with the Victorian rate of 7698.2.

Of the top five offences in the shire, sexual offences and criminal damage have increased, while breaches of family violence orders, stealing from a motor vehicle, and other theft have all decreased.

Sexual offences were the top offence committed in the shire with 92 offences recorded last year, compared to 27 in the previous year.

Criminal damage also went up from 39 in 2022 to 48 in the year ending 2023.

The previous top offence, breaches of family violence orders, went down from 90 in 2022 to 61 in 2023.

Stealing from a motor vehicle went down from 42 to 33 and other theft also decreased from 46 in 2022 to 27 in the year ending December 2023.