Fraud cases are on the rise, and it is an epidemic which shows no signs of subsiding. In the past year, Action Fraud, the national fraud reporting centre, received more than 875,000 reports of which fewer than one per cent had a judicial outcome. Fraud accounted for 40 per cent of all crimes in 2021 but only two per cent of police resources, the victims’ commissioner recently reported.

Fraud investigations are complicated, resource-intensive and expensive. The crime is often perpetrated by co-ordinated networks of criminals with advanced technology and significant cross-border activity. At the same time, the police are woefully under-resourced and, understandably, preoccupied with violent crime resulting in physical harm. Read more.