{"id":5384,"date":"2023-05-23T11:42:29","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T11:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/?p=5384"},"modified":"2023-05-23T11:42:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T11:42:29","slug":"uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/","title":{"rendered":"BLOG | UK\u2019s new strategy to fight fraud grabs headlines, but leaves police outgunned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Head of Investigations Tony McClements asks if the UK’s new national Fraud Strategy is up to the task<\/h3>\n

The levels of fraud highlighted in the UK\u2019s new\u00a0<\/span>Fraud Strategy<\/span><\/a>, which was announced in early May, make for uncomfortable reading and should also serve as a warning to the rest of the world. Fraud continues to be felt far and wide, with no corner of the globe escaping its impact.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that the UK government is at least seeking to address the issue is commendable. Does the latest plan to combat fraud go far enough? Despite headline-grabbing\u00a0<\/span>words<\/span><\/a>\u00a0from the Home Secretary claiming that fraud \u201cis a blight on our nation,\u201d the strategy to fight fraud is likely to fall short. Why? Partly because the battle against fraud has already fallen so far behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fraud now\u00a0<\/span>accounts<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for 41 percent of all crime in the UK. Of that, less than 1 percent\u00a0<\/span>receives<\/span><\/a>\u00a0any policing resources and attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

Losses\u00a0<\/span>attributed<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to fraud may be as high as \u00a3190 billion, according to one figure quoted by the UK\u2019s National Crime Agency. Given that fraud is notoriously underreported, the true figure is likely to be much greater.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Fraud Strategy calls for clamping down on cold calls and text messages,\u00a0<\/span>adding<\/span><\/a>\u00a0400 investigators, and tasking intelligence agencies to hunt down overseas criminal networks of scammers. Those are positive steps. But considering the magnitude of the problem that already exists, they aren\u2019t likely to have much impact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another reason the strategy faces long odds is because fraud is underreported and, therefore, difficult to tackle. Why is it underreported?<\/span><\/p>\n

First, the public (in the UK and other countries) has often given up hope of the police investigating on their behalf. Too often, the police view fraud as a civil offense, as a non-violent offense with low priority, or perhaps even as a victimless crime, even if that makes little logical sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, many (or maybe most) victims decide not to report fraud out of personal embarrassment \u2014 feeling shame in admitting they fell for a scam that, in hindsight, should have been easy to avoid.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, enforcement agencies may not tabulate fraud consistently because they do not plan to respond to complaints about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

All these factors combine to render reported fraud statistics unreliable.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the UK, hard-pressed police, still suffering the consequences of austerity cuts inflicted on them over a decade ago (which\u00a0<\/span>slashed<\/span><\/a>\u00a020,000 officers from UK forces, a number only now being\u00a0<\/span>replenished<\/span><\/a>), find themselves overwhelmed. In the past, the government was also accused of failing to count staggeringly high fraud numbers among supposed \u201cfalling\u201d crime figures \u2013 leading to\u00a0<\/span>a rebuke<\/span><\/a>\u00a0from the UK\u2019s statistics authority.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the proposed budget to implement the Fraud Strategy is underwhelming when set against the scale of losses to fraud in the UK. The amounts include \u00a3100 million ($125 million) of immediate funding to police forces to combat fraud, along with a further \u00a3300 million ($375 million) \u201cwider investment\u201d for tackling the broader category of economic crime.<\/span><\/p>\n

To put the new fraud announcement into some context, there are 45 police forces in the UK, excluding specialist outfits such as the National Crime Agency. If the \u00a3100 million proposed in the new strategy is spread across these forces, some of the smaller forces will likely see less than a \u00a31 million ($1.25 million) increase in their budget, an amount likely to have minimal impact upon any police force\u2019s ability to investigate and prosecute fraud, and certainly not enough for these forces to consider reassembling their now defunct fraud squads.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Fraud Strategy overall contains some good ideas and objectives. But if you have a long-running epidemic of a particular crime, major challenges must be met with dramatic action. Lesser efforts, spread across regional forces, are likely to achieve little.<\/span><\/p>\n

This piece was originally published on The FCPA Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Head of Investigations, Tony McClements, says that considering the magnitude of fraud that already exists, the UK’s new national “fraud strategy” isn’t likely to have much impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[89,84],"class_list":["post-5384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-fraud","tag-uk"],"yoast_head":"\nBLOG | UK\u2019s new strategy to fight fraud grabs headlines, but leaves police outgunned - MKS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"MKS Head of Investigations, Tony McClements, says that the UK's new national "fraud strategy" isn't likely to have much impact.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BLOG | UK\u2019s new strategy to fight fraud grabs headlines, but leaves police outgunned - MKS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MKS Head of Investigations, Tony McClements, says that the UK's new national "fraud strategy" isn't likely to have much impact.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MKS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MartinKenneySolicitors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-23T11:42:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Tony-FCPA-Blog-UK-fraud-strategy-1200-\u00d7-628px.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Ryan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mksolicitors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mksolicitors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Ryan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Ryan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#\/schema\/person\/8877ccebf0e078d75b8c4a820af7eff2\"},\"headline\":\"BLOG | UK\u2019s new strategy to fight fraud grabs headlines, but leaves police outgunned\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-23T11:42:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/\"},\"wordCount\":648,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Tony-FCPA-Blog-UK-fraud-strategy-1200-\u00d7-628px.png\",\"keywords\":[\"fraud\",\"uk\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/\",\"name\":\"BLOG | UK\u2019s new strategy to fight fraud grabs headlines, but leaves police outgunned - MKS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Tony-FCPA-Blog-UK-fraud-strategy-1200-\u00d7-628px.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-23T11:42:29+00:00\",\"description\":\"MKS Head of Investigations, Tony McClements, says that the UK's new national \\\"fraud strategy\\\" isn't likely to have much impact.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Tony-FCPA-Blog-UK-fraud-strategy-1200-\u00d7-628px.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Tony-FCPA-Blog-UK-fraud-strategy-1200-\u00d7-628px.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":628},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"BLOG | UK\u2019s new strategy to fight fraud grabs headlines, but leaves police outgunned\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/\",\"name\":\"Martin Kenney & Co (MKS)\",\"description\":\"BVI Lawyers \u2013\u00a0Global Asset Recovery\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Martin Kenney & Co (MKS)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/MKS-logo-630-\u00d7-180px.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/MKS-logo-630-\u00d7-180px.png\",\"width\":630,\"height\":180,\"caption\":\"Martin Kenney & Co (MKS)\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MartinKenneySolicitors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/mksolicitors\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/martinkenneysolicitors\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#\/schema\/person\/8877ccebf0e078d75b8c4a820af7eff2\",\"name\":\"Nick Ryan\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"BLOG | UK\u2019s new strategy to fight fraud grabs headlines, but leaves police outgunned - MKS","description":"MKS Head of Investigations, Tony McClements, says that the UK's new national \"fraud strategy\" isn't likely to have much impact.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"BLOG | UK\u2019s new strategy to fight fraud grabs headlines, but leaves police outgunned - MKS","og_description":"MKS Head of Investigations, Tony McClements, says that the UK's new national \"fraud strategy\" isn't likely to have much impact.","og_url":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/","og_site_name":"MKS","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MartinKenneySolicitors","article_published_time":"2023-05-23T11:42:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Tony-FCPA-Blog-UK-fraud-strategy-1200-\u00d7-628px.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Nick Ryan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@mksolicitors","twitter_site":"@mksolicitors","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nick Ryan","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/"},"author":{"name":"Nick Ryan","@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#\/schema\/person\/8877ccebf0e078d75b8c4a820af7eff2"},"headline":"BLOG | UK\u2019s new strategy to fight fraud grabs headlines, but leaves police outgunned","datePublished":"2023-05-23T11:42:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/"},"wordCount":648,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Tony-FCPA-Blog-UK-fraud-strategy-1200-\u00d7-628px.png","keywords":["fraud","uk"],"articleSection":["Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/","url":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/","name":"BLOG | UK\u2019s new strategy to fight fraud grabs headlines, but leaves police outgunned - MKS","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Tony-FCPA-Blog-UK-fraud-strategy-1200-\u00d7-628px.png","datePublished":"2023-05-23T11:42:29+00:00","description":"MKS Head of Investigations, Tony McClements, says that the UK's new national \"fraud strategy\" isn't likely to have much impact.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Tony-FCPA-Blog-UK-fraud-strategy-1200-\u00d7-628px.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Tony-FCPA-Blog-UK-fraud-strategy-1200-\u00d7-628px.png","width":1200,"height":628},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/2023\/05\/23\/uk-fraud-strategy-leaves-police-outgunned\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"BLOG | UK\u2019s new strategy to fight fraud grabs headlines, but leaves police outgunned"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#website","url":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/","name":"Martin Kenney & Co (MKS)","description":"BVI Lawyers \u2013\u00a0Global Asset Recovery","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#organization","name":"Martin Kenney & Co (MKS)","url":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/MKS-logo-630-\u00d7-180px.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/MKS-logo-630-\u00d7-180px.png","width":630,"height":180,"caption":"Martin Kenney & Co (MKS)"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MartinKenneySolicitors","https:\/\/x.com\/mksolicitors","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/martinkenneysolicitors"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/#\/schema\/person\/8877ccebf0e078d75b8c4a820af7eff2","name":"Nick Ryan"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5384"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5397,"href":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5384\/revisions\/5397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diskdrive33.com\/mks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}