Only 4,913 fraud offences out of the 4.9 million scams reported by people in the Office of National Statistics (ONS) annual survey of crime resulted in a charge or summons last year. This is despite the fact that the number of fraud offences has increased by nearly a third on the pre-pandemic level, according to the analysis of official data by The Telegraph.
Of the 4.9 million frauds reported to the ONS Survey – which involved a panel of 30,000 people who recorded their real experience of crime – just under one million were even reported to the police. In most cases, the fraud was written off by the victims owing to embarrassment, a belief that the fraud will never be solved, or was resolved through private settlement.
Police Were Criticised for not Making Fraud a Priority
In a report published last year, the House of Commons Justice Committee noted that while fraud accounts for roughly 40% of reported crime, only 2% of police funding is dedicated to combating it. In the absence of major investment, the police have prioritised ‘visible’ harms such as sexual offences, child exploitation and rape. Fraud is mistakenly viewed as an ‘invisible’ crime despite the emotional damage it causes.
The police have been criticised for failing to keep up with the changing nature of fraud, lacking the necessarily trained officers and not making fraud a priority. The other issue with fraud is that policing is set up with forty-three constabularies to deal with local crime, but in fraud cases, the perpetrator could be anywhere nationally, or even internationally.
Figures published by Action Fraud, the central clearing house for crime, also indicate big variations between different police forces when it comes to securing charges in fraud cases. Dorset Police reported charges in 7.2% of frauds but by contrast, North Yorkshire Police reported a judicial outcome in only 0.1% of cases.
UK Fraud Conviction Strategy Going Forward
A government spokesman stated that the government remains absolutely committed to cracking down on scammers profiting from hard-working families and that it will shortly publish a fraud strategy which will consider all possible tools to go after fraudsters and protect those who are most vulnerable to these crimes.
Ministers are also looking to introduce a new legal duty on social media firms and search engines to tackle fraudulent advertising, which would require them to put in place systems that minimise the likelihood of fraudulent adverts being published or hosted on their services. Failure to do so will leave them open to fines of up to 10% of their global turnover.
If you believe you have been defrauded or have been unfairly accused of civil fraud, contact our civil fraud team or email us at info@witansolicitors.co.uk for further advice. To read more about how recent fraud cases have played out, click here.
