White collar prosecutions fall despite rise in offences
Prosecutions for white collar crimes such as money laundering, fraud, insider trading and cybercrime have fallen to a five-year low, despite a rise in the number of reported fraud cases, new research has revealed.
Latest Ministry of Justice figures show there were 6,669 prosecutions 2018/19 compared with 9,415 in 2014. The number of cases fell by 14 per cent during the year – down from 7,786 in 2017.
However, over the same period the number of fraud and computer misuse crimes reported to police rose by more than eight per cent to 693,000 – up from 593,000 in 2014/15.
The report published today (December 9) by Thomson Reuters, suggests that austerity-related cuts in specialist police units could be a factor behind the fall. It notes that recent force inspections conducted by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) showed a significant number of police fraud teams had been reduced over the past decade.
HMICFRS found that many officers from fraud units had been reassigned to deal with more high-profile, violent crimes and sexual offences and that, as a result, some teams did not have the capacity to handle more than one investigation at a time.
Other factors identified by the report include fraud becoming more sophisticated with an increasing number of cases involving cross-border transactions and multiple countries. Fraudsters were also exploiting advances in financial services technology, such as cryptocurrencies, to cover their tracks.
As a result, more victims were choosing civil, rather than criminal, routes to recover losses.
Charles Thomson, a partner at the law firm Baker McKenzie and author of report said: “Budget cuts are taking their toll on police forces, who are having to downsize fraud teams while fraud cases continue to rise.
“The result is that police forces may not always have capacity to investigate complex fraud cases and are more likely to focus on the investigation of other offences, which are likely to be less resource intensive.
“We regularly see fraud cases being reported by victims to the police’s fraud reporting centre, Action Fraud, that never appear to be followed up. There is an urgent need for more police funding in this area and without this, the situation will only get worse.”
