According to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR), 145 cars were reported stolen within the 12-month period.

The data, which was included in the quarterly report released by BOCSAR on Thursday, also revealed rising cases of theft, domestic violence and malicious damage in the city.

The update details crime data for the five years, two years and 12 months leading up to March 2022 and is based on crimes reported to or detected by police and recorded on the NSW police Force's Computerised Operational Policing System.

The highest increase in Orange was a 64.9 per cent spike in people stealing from cars in the two years to March 2022, while the number of vehicle thefts was also up by 40.8 per cent with a total of 248 reported stolen in that period.

Although there was no significant change in that period when it came to break and enters into dwellings, there was a 61.8 per cent increase in break and enters into non-dwellings.

Domestic violence related assaults also increased by 27.6 per cent while shop lifting was up by 38.1 per cent and malicious property damage was up by 26.3 per cent.

However, there was a 31 per cent decrease in reported offences such as sexual touching, sexual acts and other sexual offences, other than sexual assault, which showed no significant change in the two years.

In the 12 months to March 2022, there were 338 reports of thefts from vehicles and 145 car thefts. Comparatively, 10,551 vehicles were stolen across NSW in that 12-month period and there were 27,446 cases of people stealing from cars.

The highest number off offences in that period were 595 instances of malicious property damage.

There were 324 domestic violence related assaults reported and 294 non-domestic violence related assaults, 80 sexual assaults and 69 instances of sexual touching and other sexual offences.

BOCSAR also reported 309 break and enters into dwellings, 105 break and enters into non dwellings,156 thefts from retail outlets, 299 other stealing offences and 19 robberies.

The increase in certain crimes was also reported across the greater Central West region with property offences increasing by 6.3 per cent in the two years from April 2020 to March 2022.

However, when it came to a five-year period it was the only region across NSW to remain stable when it came to property offences with all other urban and regional areas seeing a decrease in reported offences.

When it came to violent offences in the Central West, there was a 3.6 per cent increase in cases in the same five-year period, however the figures were stable when it came to the two-year time frame.

Like in Orange, the rate of stealing from vehicles saw the highest increase in the two years to March in the Central West with a 27.7 per cent rise in cases.

Other increases in that time-frame included a 22.9 per cent in stealing from retail stores, a 17.4 per cent increase in domestic violence assaults, and a 13.5 per cent rise in car thefts.

In the 12-months to March, malicious damage was the most prevalent offence across the Central West with 2239 offences recorded.

There were also three murders, with one in Bathurst and two in Oberon, reported between April 2021 and March 2022, out of 60 in all of NSW most of which were in the greater Sydney and coastal areas although there was one in Dubbo and one in the Warrumbungle Shire, as well as one in custody.

In the same time period there were 1413 domestic violence related assaults, and 1149 non-domestic violence related assaults, 331 sexual assaults, as well as 340 other sexual offences in the Central West.

When it came to thefts there were 51 robberies, 918 break and enters, 394 break and enters into non-dwellings, 437 vehicle thefts, 1041 thefts from cars, 483 thefts from retail outlets and 1276 other stealing offences.

However, these increases were not reflected in state-wide figures that showed many high-volume crimes remained low in the first quarter of 2022 on the back of large reductions in offending during the pandemic.

BOCSAR executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said it was surprising that stealing offences were still so low in 2022 given behaviour patterns in the community had largely returned to normal.

"A number of factors suspected to be keeping property crime low during the pandemic are no longer in play, such as mobility restrictions and access to government stimulus money," she said.

"It seems likely that property crime will start to increase over the coming year but, fortunately, this is taking longer than expected."

Between January and March 2022 police recorded 24 per cent fewer property offences than the same period two years ago, from January to March, 2020.

According to BOCSAR, this reduction was largely driven by significant falls in break and enters to dwellings which was down 27 per cent in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the same quarter in 2020.

In that period, break and enters into non-dwellings was down 23 per cent, stealing from from retail stores was down 24 per cent and stealing from motor vehicles was down 21 per cent. Robbery in NSW was also down 32 per cent.

Violent crime, by contrast, is generally on-par with pre-pandemic levels. Between January and March 2022 the volume of domestic assault and sexual offences were equivalent to the same period two years ago.

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