£3m recovered for victims of fraud with help of specialist hub

The award-winning Beacon Fraud Hub is run by Hertfordshire’s Victim Care Centre, which is staffed by professionals from Hertfordshire Constabulary’s victim service team and Catch22, an independent organisation commissioned to support victims.

The fraud hub aims to contact everyone in the county who reports to the police or Action Fraud having been defrauded. It develops an action plan for victims which includes, where necessary, liaising with agencies on their behalf; conducting a needs assessment; providing practical support and measures for target hardening.

Although not set up to investigate the crime or recover lost funds, it has been able to help victims retrieve £3 million in stolen money through effective advocacy with financial institutions and advising on the use of the banking protocol procedure.

The unit, based at the Beacon victim care centre at police headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, was set up by Mr Lloyd in April 2019.

He said: “The Beacon Fraud Hub do a fantastic job for the people of Hertfordshire, and we are one of the few places in country to run such a project. Fraud is the most prevalent crime across the county and one the public have a high degree of concern about.

“This is one of the ways in which we are helping to minimise the impact of the crime emotionally and financially, while also protecting those affected against repeat victimisation.

“We originally invested £198,000, mainly from government funds, in setting up the Beacon Fraud Hub and it been repaying dividends ever since by helping those who have lost money to get it back.”

Chief Constable Charlie Hall said: “This is a great result for both the team and the victims who have had their money recovered – £3 million is a significant amount of money and its recovery will have been some recompense to the victims of heartless fraudsters. What’s more we’re keeping at it, so this figure is only going to grow.”

Previously the fraud hub, which has four dedicated members of staff, won the Outstanding Customer Service Initiative category of the national Tackling Economic Crime Awards (TECAs). It was also hailed as the ‘gold standard’ of victim support at a College of Policing fraud conference.

Every month a list of around 650 Hertfordshire fraud victims is sent to the hub. The list comes from those who have reported a crime to Action Fraud, via City of London Police, which leads nationally on tackling and investigating the crime.

The Beacon Fraud Hub has established a multi-agency fraud forum where specialist organisations work together to protect the most vulnerable victims. This collaboration has been shortlisted for an ‘Outstanding Partnership’ award at this year’s Tackling Economic Crime Awards.