The data also showed there was a rise in the number of non-domestic-violence-related assaults, fraud and sexual assaults in the city in the 12 months to December 2018 compared with the same period in 2017.

But given the ongoing public outrage over thefts from and of cars, many of which end up torched, it's unsurprising that stealing from a motor vehicle registered the biggest increase among all crime categories in the Orange local government area.

The total number of incidents up by more than 30 per cent: from 290 in 2017 to 432 in 2018.

The release of the data comes in the wake of eight cars being forcibly broken into across the city on Tuesday, February 26, leaving residents with broken car windows, and wallets and cash stolen.

The number of fraud cases went up from 204 in 2017 to 302 in 2018, non-domestic-violence assaults increased from 231 to 238, while sexual assault cases went up from 60 to 74 in 2018.

BOCSAR data showed that there were certain crime categories where the number of incidents has declined in the past year.

The number of domestic violence assaults fell slightly from 269 in 2017 to 243 in 2018, while break and enter a dwelling incidents have also come down from 332 324.​

Overall, the number of crime incidents remained stable in the Central West except for the rise in the number of fraud cases, which went up from 999 in 2017 to 1133 in 2018.

Stealing from motor vehicle and non-domestic-violence-related assaults also registered a small increase on their 2017 figures, while break and enter incidents have come down across the region.