Uk Fraud

[Hymie]

If you ever doubted that the UK Police force was totally incompetent; on Money Box (Radio 4 finance programme) today the most senior person responsible for the investigation of fraud announced that it (fraud) accounted for 35% of all crime in the UK, but that they were spending only 1% of their resources on fraud.

No wonder criminals engaged in fraud a laughing all the way to the bank.

[Buenchico]

Bewere of statistics!

A high proportion of crimes which are recorded as 'fraud' are actually linked to the theft of contactless debit cards. For example, if I nick such a card and then use it in twenty shops to make low-value purchases, it will be recorded as one offence of theft and twenty offences of fraud. Any investigation of those matters will be dealt with by 'regular' police officers, rather than by dedicated fraud staff (who clearly don't need to be involved in such matters anyway).

[ABerrant]

What should be the appropriate percentage of resources spent to effectively investigate fraud?

It can't be as simple a formula as 35% of resources be directed toward one category of criminal act that amounts to 35% of all criminal activity. After all, I spend around 20 times more of my time sleeping than eating but I don't devote the equivalent proportions of my finances to those activities.

[fiction-factory]

I do sometimes feel that the police are out of their depth on some of these frauds but I also recognise that many of the fraudsters are simply untraceable because they are overseas and can move money around and create multiple IP addresses and email addresses in ways that makes them untraceable. Even if the police dedicated 35 times as much of their time to it I suspect they would not recover anywhere near 35 times as much.

[THECORBYLOON]

From the Office for National Statistics in March this year, "Around one in seven (15%) fraud incidents were reported to Action Fraud or the police; the most common reason given for not doing so was that the incident was reported to financial authorities instead."

That means 5.25% of fraud incidents were reported to the police or Action Fraud.

[bednobs]

also, i bet if you asked a load of people if they wanted the police to investigate brglaries, thefts, rapes, mrders or fraud you'd find that people want the serious crimes investigated

[douglas9401]

Quite possibly, bednobs, at least until their credit card bill popped through the door showing dodgy transactions.

Fluid priorities may then apply.

[Prudie]

I'm sure you are right Hymie but I was just listening to it while doing my nails and I thought the 1% referred to cases solved rather than resources spent. Either way the figures were shocking.