BRITAIN’S police are not equipped to fight fraud, which now accounts for more than four in ten crimes committed, a new report said.
Half of police officers don’t believe they have the skills to investigate scams and almost 90% said they don’t have enough resources to properly track crooks.
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A report by think tank, the Police Foundation, said that the Government should create a national Crime Prevention Agency to tackle fraud and cybercrime, and private companies should be legally required to share data relevant to investigating and halting crimes.
It also said that fraud policing should come under any new national police agency ranked alongside organised crime and counter-terrorism, and there should be a national strategy to ensure a pipeline of fraud-savvy investigators.
With 70% of the crime originating abroad, report author Michael Skidmore said: “We have a 1960s local policing structure trying to fight a 21st-century cyber-enabled, cross-border crime.”
Official figures show that there were 4.1 million victims of fraud, which accounted for 43% of all crime last year in England and Wales and the cost to society is £6.8 billion a year.
But despite this, the latest Home Office figures show just 3,641 fraud cases resulted in a charge.
Launching the report supported by Virgin Media O2, Andy Higgins, acting CEO of the Police Foundation, said: “Fraud is now the background noise of modern life with one in 10 of the adult population becoming a victim, but the vast majority of victims getting no police response.
“We need a single national body to oversee fraud investigations.”
Michael Skidmore added: “We need a new national lead body with a ring-fenced budget and local and regional tasking powers, greater private sector collaboration and an uplift in skills.
“The current model is simply unsustainable, given the scale, harm and sophistication of the fraud challenge we face today.”
Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud Prevention at Virgin Media O2, said: “At Virgin Media O2, we’re committed to fighting fraud, having invested millions in our defences and blocked more than £250 million transactions in a single year.
“But with overall fraud prosecutions falling despite a 33% jump in cases last year, the UK is failing to effectively tackle fraud, and criminals are stealing with no real prospect of ever facing justice.
“Victims are being left to fend for themselves.
“We urge the government to seize this opportunity to reform and show that it won’t allow fraud to become a crime without consequence.”
Labour MP, Luke Charters, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Technology and member of the Public Accounts Committee, said that co-operation between big tech companies was vital to tackle crime and more needed to be done.
He said: “Social media companies are in the last chance saloon, some are really lagging behind.
“If they don’t share data it should be made mandatory.
“I don’t want a Labour Government to have a legacy of fraud increasing from our time in office.”
