Developed by the newly-established National Fraud Strategic Authority (NFSA) – itself an executive agency of the Attorney General’s Office – for the first time the National Fraud Strategy brings together over 25 key private and public sector organisations.
The 72-page strategy follows on from the 2006 Fraud Review and complements a range of Government measures to safeguard a fairer deal for consumers, first announced by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on 17 March. The three-year strategy is designed to strengthen the counter-fraud community’s response to fraudsters and provide “real help, protection and support to individual consumers and businesses”.
In launching the National Fraud Strategy at 1 Great George Street in London, Baroness Scotland QC commented: “This strategy represents an emphatic response from the Government – and indeed the wider economy – to the misconception that fraud is a ‘victimless crime’. Each year, fraud costs every person in the country an estimated GB pound 231.”
“The Baroness went on to state: “I am acutely aware of the financial and personal misery that frauds such as e-mail scams, identity theft, mortgage and credit card fraud through to Ponzi schemes and share sale frauds can inflict on consumers and businesses.”
Hostile environment for the fraudsters
It’s the Government’s intention to create a far more difficult environment for the fraudsters. Baroness Scotland explained: “The National Fraud Strategy represents further Government action to deliver real help for consumers and businesses by creating a more hostile environment for fraudsters. The strategy makes clear that there are fair rules which apply to individuals, communities and businesses alike, and there will be clear consequences for those who break them.”
In addition, the Baroness said: “The National Fraud Strategic Authority will co-ordinate activity, remove gaps and overlaps and maximise opportunities to ensure that all counter-fraud activities are able to deliver the greatest possible results. We are working to provide real help now to people and businesses and make it that much tougher for them to be defrauded.”
Focus on four key areas
Counter-fraud activity is being focused on four key areas:
– Improving the building and sharing of knowledge about fraud – the City of London Police is establishing a new National Fraud Reporting Centre and National Fraud Intelligence Bureau
– Tackling the most serious and harmful fraud threats, including identify and mass marketing fraud
– Disrupting and punishing more fraudsters while improving support to their victims (by working with the Association of Chief Police Officers and Victim Support, introducing plea negotiations and extending Crown Courts’ powers in fraud cases)
– Improving the nation’s long-term capability to prevent fraud – by better co-ordinating fraud public awareness activity and building strong, supportive partnerships among the counter-fraud community.
The objectives are to be implemented by a strong cross- business and cross-community ‘partnership approach’. This includes co-operation and data sharing between bodies such as the Association of British Insurers, the BBA, the Department of Health, Trading Standards, the Law Society, the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Financial Services Authority.
Sandra Quinn, the NFSA’s interim chief executive officer, commented: “Tackling fraud effectively requires everyone across the economy to work together. So, in developing this strategy, one of the NFSA’s fundamental principles has been to harness and enhance the existing work, energy, expertise, resources and opportunities for action provided by our delivery partners across Government, business and the voluntary sector.”
Quinn continued: “This strategy is a launch pad from which we can move forward to increase the risk fraudsters have to undertake to commit their malicious crimes, while increasing the protection and confidence of people and businesses to go about their business safely.”
Stakeholder-based approach to the problem
Well-known St John’s Chambers barrister Adrian Maxwell – a Fellow of The Security Institute and chairman of the South West Fraud Forum – attended the launch.
“The public sector is described as the biggest fraud victim at GB pound 6.5 billion in 2006,” said Maxwell in conversation with SMT Online. “The Treasury has allocated GB pound 29 million to implement the strategy, which is centred on the NFSA and ACPO with 25 key private and public sector organisations. It’s very much a ‘Stakeholder’-based approach with the City of London Police, the ‘lead force’, operating a National Fraud Reporting Centre and National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and the NFSA effectively serving as a hub leader.”
The strategy refers to the new Fraud Prosecution Service, the CIFAS Staff Sharing Database, modernising the law (Enterprise Act 2002, Companies Act 2005, Fraud Act 2006, Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 etc), plea bargaining, further quasi civil powers for the Crown Court and Serious Crime Prevention Orders (‘Super ASBOs’) under the Serious Crime Act 2007. There’s no mention of the amount of fraud that goes unreported through the civil courts.
“There’s a heavy emphasis on data and good practice sharing, and the responsibilities of the business community,” suggested Maxwell. “Pages 18 to 21 offer a strategy delivery timetable. The NFSA has already published a Mortgage Fraud programme, and is to implement ‘an increased capacity to root out corrupt or criminal individuals who infiltrate the legal, accountancy or surveying professions so that they face a credible threat of detection and sanction’.”
Who will investigate reported frauds?
All sectors of the business community will be under pressure to implement anti-fraud policies and systems, very much like the anti-money laundering burden placed on commerce.
“There are controversial areas, too,” opined Maxwell. “Databases on current and ex-staff are being talked about. Then there’s the vexed question of who will actually investigate reported fraud, bearing in mind the City of London police is now the old force (of 43 in England and Wales) that has a distinct and dedicated ‘Fraud Squad’.”
A leaflet entitled ‘Keep Clear of Fraud’ has been produced by the NFSA in conjunction with the City of London Police (CoLP) and the Financial Services Authority. To be distributed mainly at doctors’ surgeries, pharmacies and other public- facing agencies from this week onwards, the leaflet lays down simple steps that people can take to prevent themselves from becoming the victim of a scam.
National Fraud Reporting Centre
In addition, the CoLP is to establish a National Fraud Reporting Centre allowing victims to report any instances of fraud, at the same time making sure that intelligence is captured such that arrest rates might be increased.
The Centre is scheduled to be piloted at some point later this year, and then properly rolled-out in 2010.
The National Fraud Reporting Centre is to be an 0800-style operation, while City Police investigative resources will be allocated on an as-yet-unpublished ‘seriousness’ criteria.
