Police response to scams, fraud ‘woefully deficient’
The police response to scams and fraud is undermining confidence not only in the police but also the broader criminal justice system, a new report has found.
These findings are from an Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report into 52 complaints about police’s handling of fraud from 2018 to 2020.
The report gives real examples of the police’s failures in investigating fraud, with scams involving Facebook Marketplace, kit-set homes, Trade Me and campervans. The police response to fraud is ‘‘woefully deficient’’,
IPCA chairperson Judge Colin Doherty wrote in the report. The stumbling block for police is an apparent unwillingness to investigate fraud offences which are not blatant and direct. Anything less clear is in the ‘‘too hard’’ basket.
The problems stem from the police’s lack of understanding of fraud. Unless there is concrete evidence that a fraudster intended to deceive the victims – such as a message admitting the transaction was a scam – police tended to disregard the claims or focus on a later offer to pay the victims back.
‘‘The Police response to fraud falls well short of victims’ expectations and is failing to meet the challenges that the present fraud landscape poses,’’ Judge
Doherty wrote. Police accepted the report and were looking at ways to improve the system, a spokesperson said. ‘‘We accept that we could do more to meet victims’ expectations around investigation and resolution of fraud.’’
Preventative measures were a focus for police given the volume of fraud in New Zealand. ‘‘To be successful will require increased awareness and a collective effort to make fraud offending harder and higher risk for offenders,’’ the police spokesperson said.
Case studies in the IPCA report showed even repeated patterns of the same fraud were not prosecuted by police.
In 2020 and 2021 police received 19 complaints about the same campervan scammer, who had sold campervans which never arrived or which turned out to be different from what the purchasers had ordered. Just one complaint led to prosecution. Two of the campervan complaints were not properly recorded in the police database; all the others were deemed to be a civil dispute which the police could not investigate.
The campervan scammer was covered on Fair Go three times. The police have still not prosecuted the fraud, the report said. Instead, the fraudster has been deemed a ‘‘high-risk victim’’ by police because he contacts police whenever the fraud complainants confront him about the offending.