A member of the Northern Ireland Assembly’s justice committee has called for more police resources to be dedicated to Internet crime after thousands were reported in the past year.

Doug Beattie, an Ulster Unionist Party MLA, responded to reports that nearly 5,000 crimes relating to Facebook, Twitter and eBay were reported to the PSNI in the last 12 months.

The PSNI’s Cyber Crime Unit has 21 specialist officers following a decision in February to boost numbers in response to what the force called an “exponential growth in cyber-related crime”.

Mr Beattie told the Belfast Telegraph: “Many of these crimes are due to individuals who think they can say and do as they wish without repercussions purely because they are anonymous.

“Many of these crimes are hate-based crimes and in many ways libelous in their content.”

He added: “I believe courts should be given the power to ban individuals from social media if they are found to be habitually committing an offence.”