Report: How scammers are slipping through net

Fraudsters are able to “operate with impunity” because police are not properly equipped to investigate them, an official report has concluded.

The review, led by former Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Sir Craig Mackey, found that only one in 200 officers in England and Wales was dedicated to investigating fraud even though there were almost four million incidents a year, more than a third of all crimes.

The review found that growth in fraud meant that it should be seen as a “national threat.”

In Scotland, there were 9,675 crimes of fraud recorded in 2018-19, up 12% and the fourth consecutive annual increase.

Sir Craig’s review called for “radical change”. He wrote: “Fraudsters operate with impunity and renewed commitments are needed in the police service to take the fight back to them.”

The review was prompted by an investigation by The Times last year. It found that call handlers for Action Fraud, the police’s national fraud reporting service, which has been outsourced to a Gourock call centre, were trained to mislead callers into thinking their cases would be investigated when most were never looked at again.

Sir Craig found there were “disturbing trends” in the work of Action Fraud, which was “lagging behind industry standards”.

Police Scotland said: “Action Fraud is a Home Office-funded fraud reporting system of which Police Scotland has never been a member. Anyone in Scotland who believes they may have been the victim of a fraud should call us on 101 or report it to any police officer.”