Police forces have been criticised for their poor approach to tackling fraud, which is still seen as “victimless or low-priority” even though it is at the top of the government’s agenda on crime.
A report from the police watchdog said that too many victims received a poor service and were denied justice, the investigation and prevention of offences was under-resourced and too few fraudsters were held to account.
Less than 1 per cent of all police personnel are involved in investigating fraud, despite it accounting for 13 per cent of recorded crime. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service said that despite the huge drop during the pandemic in volume crime such as robbery or assault, the total of overall offences remained at the same level because fraud surged.
The inspectorate found the “detrimental effect of fraud is as great today as it has ever been” but it was treated as a low-priority or victimless crime. It said that police forces had failed to implement all its recommendations after a critical assessment in 2019.
Last week the government said that Action Fraud, the national reporting service that became a byword for failure, was to be scrapped and replaced by an “an improved national fraud and cybercrime reporting system”. An undercover investigation by The Times in 2019 had found that call handlers at Action Fraud were taking victims’ reports after only two weeks of training. They were coached into misleading callers into thinking they were talking to police officers, while managers mocked victims as “morons”, “screwballs” and “psychos”.
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Fraud and hacking rose sharply in the pandemic as criminals “took advantage of behavioural changes” such as a rise in online shopping.
Matt Parr, an inspector of constabulary, said: “You are still more likely to be a victim of fraud than any other crime, but too few fraudsters are held to account. The scale of fraud has not diminished — in fact it has increased during the pandemic — and it needs to become more of a priority for police forces.”
While he praised “some pockets of good work” and the dedication to tackling the problem among forces, Parr said: “Overall, too many victims of fraud still receive a poor service.”
More officers should be working on fraud cases and there should be more investigations so victims receive “the justice they are entitled to”, he added.
Action Fraud reported a 28 per cent rise in fraud offences, from 312,035 in 2019-20 to 398,022 over the 12 months to March of this year.
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The report recommended that the National Police Chiefs’ Council, National Crime Agency, National Economic Crime Centre and City of London Police work together to establish better processes to tackle fraud.
