National Policing Lead
For Economic Crime
Annual Review 2015 - 16
Foreword
2
National Coordination
4
National Protect Strategy
6
Working Harder for Victims
8
Innovation in Policing
10
Working with Partners
14
Pursuing Criminals
18
Economic Crime Directorate
22
Foreword
Commander Christopher Greany
In 2015, for the first time, fraud and cyber crime
were included in the Crime Survey of England
and Wales. In this sample the public felt they
had been victims of over 5 million frauds and 2.5
million cyber crimes.
This represents more than the total of all other
crimes the public identified in the same survey and
demonstrates the extent of under-reporting. In the
last year more than 230,000 crimes were reported
to Action Fraud.
We have examined the crimes reported to Action
Fraud and are identifying more criminal networks
and investigative leads than ever before, with an
18% increase in the number of crimes disseminated
to police forces for action in 2015/16.
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Annual Review 2015 - 16
I am committed to bringing the perpetrators of these
crimes to justice. In the past year, City of London Police
investigations resulted in 171 suspects being charged and
159 offenders convicted and sentenced to a combined
total of 264 years imprisonment. There is still more we can
do about this type of crime, of which I believe 80% could
be prevented. We will continue to focus on education
and prevention while working with industry to design out
weaknesses in systems and processes.
This year we established an Economic and Cyber Crime
Prevention Centre to coordinate campaigns and a fraud
prevention network that reaches across every single
police force in England and Wales. Through this network,
policing is reaching more people and businesses than
ever before with prevention advice. We are also using
research analytics to predict when and where crimes will
occur and target advice more scientifically.
Collaboration is key to our efforts this year. From the
multi-agency campaigns group we established to align
prevention messaging across the public and private
sector landscape, to the joint fraud taskforce launched
by the Home Secretary. We are bringing together
government, law enforcement, regulators, business
and academia, and working collectively to protect our
communities from this pernicious threat.
In the coming year, as the National Coordinator for
Economic Crime, I will continue to identify new ways
to improve how policing responds to fraud and cyber
crime. This includes transforming the national reporting
service for fraud and cyber crime. We are rolling out new
technology to make it easier to report to Action Fraud
by offering a wider range of communication channels.
Businesses will be able to make up to 1,000 reports at a
time and victims will be able to track the progress of their
crime via an online portal.
Police forces will have access to real time information
from the reporting service on threats, suspected offenders
and victims in their force areas. This information will help
them to support victims and deliver an intelligence-led
response to local threats.
My intention is to increase our cyber reporting capability
to offer a 24/7 service to provide a single point of contact
and better manage the law enforcement response in the
critical early hours of a discovery. This will minimise loss
of data and the impact of attacks on businesses, the
wider economy and, in cases of terrorism, public safety.
With my team, the principles of innovation, collaboration
and victim service will remain at the forefront of the
national agenda for policing economic crime.
I would like to thank all partners who have worked with City
of London Police to reduce the harm caused by economic
crime to citizens, businesses and the economy and look
forward to continued collaboration in the coming year.
Fraud in Numbers
11%
of adults say they have been
targeted by fraudsters in the last
year losing and average of £1,0161
Insolvency trade body R3 and ComRes
1
1 in 3
Number of organisations
impacted by economic crime2
PWC Global Economic Crime Survey 2016
2
Fraud and cyber crimes
compared to other crimes
7.6 million
6.4 million
Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).
October 2015.
3
National
Coordination
In September 2015 we welcomed Commander
Christopher Greany who took over the portfolio
of National Coordinator for Economic Crime and
identity crime and was appointed the National
Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Cyber Protect. Over
the coming year we will continue to work closely
with police forces, identifying vulnerabilities in
the police service response and strengthening its
ability to reduce the harm caused from economic
crime. With the new information technology we
have purchased for the national fraud and cyber
reporting service, this year police forces will have
real time access to fraud and cyber intelligence
for their area including details of threats, offenders
and victims. This will enable police forces to
develop a more dynamic and intelligence-led
approach to policing economic crime.
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Annual Review 2015 - 16
Understanding local vulnerabilities to cyber crime
This year, with funding from the National Cyber
Security Programme, we provided Police and Crime
Commissioners and Chief Constables with an assessment
of cyber crime in their jurisdiction. By analysing data held
by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, NCA, Cert UK
and GCHQ we articulated the threat to communities in
each police force area in England and Wales. We also
used this data to develop a cyber victimology report
that identified vulnerabilities and victim demographics
including the risks associated with using public WiFi,
phishing, port scanning, malware deployment, banking
trojans, and ransomware.
Helping to strengthen economic crime and financial
investigation capabilities internationally
We undertook a review of economic crime investigation
management in Pakistan following a request from
the NCA, who are working alongside the Department
for International Development and the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office. Our assessment and future
training will help build capacity, and assist the authorities
in combating economic crime.
Helping Crown Dependencies to strengthen economic
crime and financial investigation capabilities
We undertook a review of the economic crime and financial
investigation capabilities of Guernsey Police Border
Agency and Royal Gibraltar Police and proposed a series
of recommendations to strengthen capacity and capability.
We are supporting the implementation of these through
training, secondments and continued strategic advice.
A new and improved fraud investigation model
Lancashire Constabulary’s Economic Crime Unit
volunteered to pilot the effectiveness of the new fraud
investigation model. The model is part of the policing
fraud guide developed by our Economic Crime Academy
which is available on the College of Policing Authorised
Professional Practice website. During the pilot we
worked with Lancashire Constabulary to develop an
action plan for integrating the fraud investigation model
into their investigative practice and identified methods
for monitoring its effectiveness. This formed a useful
precedent for forces looking to implement the model.
Tackling identity crime
Identity crime is a key enabler to
Total readership of
fraud and other criminal activity.
7.6 million
In 2015 we launched a national
campaign to raise awareness of and
prevent identity crime. Not With My
Name included advice on creating
safe passwords, protecting internet
devices, dealing with unsolicited
phone calls and emails and
disposing of personal information.
23
million
Twitter impressions
700,000
Facebook impressions
5
National
Protect Strategy
Through engagement with forces we identified
that economic and cyber crime protect activity was
not always being prioritised and that messaging
was inconsistent with each force having to create
its own material. Subsequently, we developed
and implemented a National Policing Protect
Strategy, aligned to the National Policing Fraud
Strategy. The cornerstone of this strategy was the
establishment of a national coordination hub, the
Economic and Cyber Crime Prevention Centre.
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Annual Review 2015 - 16
Protect Yourself
The Economic and Cyber Crime Prevention Centre
Working with local forces we deliver workshops that
provide an overview of the threat from fraud and cyber
crime and advise on preventing victimisation. They are
delivered to police officers with responsibility for engaging
with members of the public, business owners and carers
of vulnerable adults.
The Economic and Cyber Crime Prevention Centre
(ECPC) aims to reduce the impact of economic crime
on victims and empower individuals and businesses
to protect themselves through intelligence-led and
evidence based crime prevention activities. We achieve
this by identifying systematic vulnerabilities that expose
individuals and businesses to fraud and cyber crime.
We raise national awareness of these vulnerabilities, and
deliver simple and practical advice to mitigate the public’s
risk to them.
We have also delivered a series of webcasts with
partners that highlight current threats and trends which
provided pragmatic protect advice. These events
were delivered monthly and reached in excess of 500
businesses on each occasion.
The ECPC is supported by a national prevention
network comprising representatives from economic
crime departments, cyber crime units, crime prevention
departments and communications teams in Regional
Organised Crime Units and local police forces who assist
in the design of national campaigns and dissemination of
messages in local communities.
Urban Myths
In October, we launched a campaign tackling
fraud urban myths. The campaign was covered
by the Guardian, Daily Mail, ITV, BBC Radio 4 and
Multi-agency campaigns group
We have led on the deconfliction of
prevention activity across the public and
private sectors through the creation of a
multi-agency economic and cyber crime
campaigns group. The group aims to
maximise efficiency, ensure consistency
and make best use of finite resources in
delivering protect advice. A key principle
of the group is to promote a partnership
approach, with all organisations working
together to achieve this.
The group includes law enforcement and
public and private sector partners who
meet regularly to share information on
threats and pre-planned education and
awareness campaigns. This makes advice
consistent and allows partners to support
and complement each other’s campaigns.
Members include the National Crime
Agency, British Telecom, Getsafeonline,
Cifas, Financial Fraud Action UK, British
Bankers Association, Crimestoppers,
Age UK, the Charity Commission and a
number of other organisations.
Based on the planned activities of this
group and intelligence held within the
National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, we
were able to identify prevention needs
that were not being met and developed a
number of campaigns to fill this gap.
BBC Five Live.
60
pieces of national and
local media coverage
Online Shopping at Christmas
This campaign was aimed at protecting the
Don’t get
conned out
of Christmas
public against online shopping threats over
the festive period. It was timed to coincide
with busy online shopping days such as Black
Friday and Cyber Monday, and was widely
reported by national, regional and trade press.
Coverage included the Daily Mirror, and the
Daily Telegraph.
www.getsafeonline.org
174
pieces of regional
media coverage
7
Working
Harder For
Victims
Victims remain at the heart of our service.
We provide advice to prevent individuals and
businesses becoming victims, and in some
instances repeat victims. We share intelligence,
enabling banks and other organisations to freeze
accounts, take down websites and disconnect
phone lines linked to fraudulent activity. We are
seizing criminal assets and returning this money
to their victims.
As part of the new service we are working with
victim groups, especially Victim Support, on the
transformation of the fraud and cyber reporting
service. We will be capturing information to help
police forces better understand the needs of
victims in their area and identify who are at risk
individuals. We are also working on a National
Fraud Victim Strategy which will help police
forces to deliver a consistent and responsive
service to victims.
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Annual Review 2015 - 16
Easier processes for reporting fraud and cyber crime
This year we took over 230,000 crime reports from victims
and increased the volume of crimes sent to police forces
with viable lines of enquiry by 18%.
We are transforming Action Fraud to make it easier for
victims and police forces to report fraud and cyber crime.
This includes a multi-channel contact centre (telephone,
website, web chat), improved processes for information
capture that will provide more viable lines of inquiry and a
bulk reporting capability for industry, which will take up to
a 1,000 reports at a time. There will also be a personalised
track my crime function so victims can monitor the
progress of their report.
Supporting the unique needs of London’s economic
crime victims
In partnership with The Mayor’s Office for Policing And
Crime (MOPAC), our Economic Crime Victim Care Unit
provides a support service for victims in London. The unit
undertakes a needs assessment and develops individual
care plans that help victims to cope, recover and avoid
repeat victimisation. Following the receipt of advice from
our unit, 83% of victims said they had taken measures
to reduce the risk of becoming repeat victims and none
of the individuals reached have reported falling victim to
fraud again. In the coming year we will be working closely
with Police and Crime Commissioners across the country
to share the learning from this model and develop a more
consistent approach to supporting victims of economic
crime across different force areas.
Supporting victims
Protecting consumer safety
The Police Intellectual Property Crime
Unit has been dismantling counterfeit
operations that are putting public safety
at risk. In February we arrested a man
in Dorset as part of an investigation into
the online sale of counterfeit airbags
and seized around 100 suspected
counterfeit airbags. The counterfeit
airbags presented a clear danger to the
public. As part of this enquiry we alerted
680 people believed to have purchased
counterfeit and dangerous airbags and
covers on eBay.
Following the seizure of a shipping container
with what is believed to be more than 4,700
counterfeit versions of one of the UK’s
most popular beauty brands, we launched
the Wake Up Don’t Fake Up campaign
in May. The campaign highlighted the
dangers of buying and using counterfeit
goods such as make-up, perfume,
electrical hair stylers and sun-cream.
Laboratory tests have shown counterfeit
cosmetics contain poisonous chemicals
including cyanide, arsenic, lead and
even human urine, all of which can cause
allergic reactions, and leave consumers
with longer term health problems.
The campaign was covered in more than
20 countries and there were 350 press
articles, over 3,000 tweets and more than
16.7m timeline deliveries.
76%
Overall satisfaction with
the service provided by
investigating officers
1,527
intelligence
products and alerts
disseminated to
industry partners
and the public
80%
Satisfaction with
Action Fraud
£5.4m
Assets recovered
and returned to 847
victims
9
Innovation in
Policing
Innovation is essential to efficient and effective
Fraud and cyber prevention tool
delivery of our policing services.
In April 2015 we were awarded part funding from the
Home Office Police Innovation Fund to create a web
based Fraud Prevention Tool. This tool is the first of its
kind and provides users with a personal risk assessment
of their vulnerability to fraud and cyber crime, offering
bespoke advice based on their level of susceptibility,
as well as the potential consequences of not taking this
protective advice. The basis of this work is an academic
study on victim segmentation delivered by the Home
Office’s Research, Information and Communications
Unit, which employed statistical analysis to categorise
individuals based on knowledge and vulnerability.
In addition to the innovations we have been
developing over the past year, we successfully
secured nearly £1m in part-funding from the Police
Innovation Fund. In 2016 we will be commencing
four exciting new projects:
• capture, harvesting and sharing of false identity
data collected by ID scanners in banks;
• trial of new technology to improve the
effectiveness and speed of digital evidence
Bringing private sector expertise into policing
analysis and disclosure;
• a collaboration between law enforcement and
private sector asset recovery firms to recover
proceeds of economic crime; and
• a national economic crime learning centre in
partnership with academia
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Annual Review 2015 - 16
The flexible use of special constables across the
Economic Crime Directorate has led to specialist
volunteers being deployed in a wide range of areas from
the Fraud Teams to the Economic Crime Academy. Using
specialist knowledge from cross-sectoral backgrounds
has increased our technical cyber capabilities, business
expertise and increased our capacity in the fight against
economic and cyber crime.
The first national trial of restorative justice for victims
and offenders of economic crime
To date, restorative justice trials and studies have focused
on physical and community based offending. In May
2015 we commenced the country’s first trial of the use of
restorative justice within the boundaries of economic crime.
In collaboration with the National Probation Service, the
project aims to test the effectiveness of restorative justice to
help victims of economic crime cope and recover, deliver
efficiency savings and reduce reoffending.
The trial is focused around insurance fraud offences, such
as the crash for crash scam. It aims to help offenders
understand the impact of their crime and give victims the
chance to meet or communicate with those who have
committed offences against them.
The trial concluded in April 2016 followed by an academic
evaluation. If the evidence demonstrates restorative
justice is effective for economic crime, we will continue to
use this approach and work with police forces to roll out
this locally.
Economic Crime Academy
We have continued to provide a range of training courses including
fraud investigation and anti-bribery. This year we launched a new
suite of courses to meet the growing demand in the cyber arena.
With a majority of frauds using cyber enablers, whether phishing
attempts or high level hacking, everyone involved in fraud prevention
or investigation needs a strong understanding of cyber concepts and
online investigation. We have built relationships with leading experts
to bring these vital skills to financial crime and fraud investigators
across policing, government and industry.
815
delegates from private, public and
not for trade sectors trained (all courses)
99%
of delegates satisfied with
the content and delivery
of courses
3,699
delegate days delivered
www.academy.cityoflondon.police.uk
11
Mobile banking and online payment technologies
Operational Skynet is led by the Dedicated Card and
Payment Crime Unit in partnership with the University
of Bristol, Europol’s Cyber Crime Centre (EC3) and law
enforcement agencies in Belgium, Romania, Finland,
Hungary and France.
The first stage of this project was academic research to
map the law enforcement approach to cyber dependent
crime in the payments sector, specifically card not present
and online banking fraud. The study also identified
emerging technologies having the greatest impact now
and in the future.
Co-funded by the Prevention of and Fight against Crime
Programme of the European Union
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The research provides recommendations for how
regulation, legislation, training and action by law
enforcement, industry and consumers could be focused
on the areas which will achieve the best prevention,
detection and enforcement outcomes. The research also
examines opportunities for stakeholders, particularly in
law enforcement, the financial industry and government,
to support initiatives with the potential to raise the bar
for the investigation and disruption of cyber dependent
crime, both nationally and internationally.
The next phase of the project involves training for
police officers in digital detection, investigation and
prevention and a programme of two way exchanges and
secondments between industry and law enforcement.
Tackling the business practices that enable fraud
In 2015, Servcorp was fined £21,000 and ordered to pay
£11,500 in costs after pleading guilty to seven offences
under the London Local Authorities Act 2007 at the City of
London Magistrates Court.
The prosecution was brought following a joint investigation
with City of London Trading Standards as part of Operation Broadway, and was the first of its kind. It focused on
the actions of the company that through poor business
practices enabled suspects currently under investigation
to operate within the Square Mile.
Operation Broadway is a multi-agency initiative to tackle
investment fraudsters operating in the Square Mile and
surrounding London boroughs. It has spread awareness
throughout the mail forwarding, virtual and serviced office
industry, of how criminals operate – typically by using
prestigious addresses to run investment fraud operations
in the City and key Metropolitan Police boroughs.
Operation Broadway
Working in partnership with City of London Trading Standards,
London Trading Standards, Scambusters, The Financial Conduct
Authority, Insolvency Service, The National Fraud Intelligence
Bureau, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Metropolitan
Police Service to tackle and reduce investment fraud.
Op Broadway
Down
reduced
investment fraud within the City of London,
10%
to date
and surrounding Metropolitan Police areas
Publications featuring Op Broadway
Bloomberg
News
ITV News
ITV London
Daily Telegraph
Financial Times
Bloomberg News
Radio 4 You and Yours
13
Working
With
Partners
We work with partners across the public, private
and third sectors. By working together, we
strengthen the UK’s defences against fraud and
cyber crime and make it harder for offenders to
reach and harm our communities. Our partners
support us in the fight against fraud through
funding, resources and expertise. The City of
London Corporation also provides financial
support. These funding streams enable us to
deliver our national responsibilities.
Joint Fraud Taskforce
Secondments and exchanges
In February the Home Secretary launched the Joint Fraud
Taskforce, a partnership between the Home Office, City
of London Police, Financial Conduct Authority, National
Crime Agency, Bank of England, Cifas and a number of
banks. This is a new era of collaboration which will focus
on five key areas:
We have a number of secondees from industry working
with our units to tackle crime. In the Insurance Fraud
Enforcement Department (IFED) we have had experts
from Aviva and LV= who shared industry knowledge and
supported criminal and asset recovery investigations
and aided IFED’s development of its annual threat
assessment.
• Understanding the threat – identification of intelligence
gaps and vulnerabilities
• Collective response - fast tracked intelligence sharing
between banks and law enforcement and the creation
of a new top ten most-wanted list of fraudsters
• Victims and vulnerability – identification of victims
and potential victims, including national roll out of
intervention training for bank staff
• Behaviour change - understanding why victims fall prey
to fraud and helping to raise awareness of the steps
they can take to protect themselves
• Tackling systemic vulnerabilities - removing weak links
in systems and processes which fraudsters exploit
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Annual Review 2015 - 16
A barrister from the Red Lion Chambers recently
completed a secondment with the Fraud Squad,
Financial Investigation Unit and Police Intellectual
Property Crime Unit. This provided a platform for an
exchange of legal advice on prosecutions, the court
processes and an examination of money laundering
legislation.
In 2015 we established an officer exchange programme
with the District Attorney’s Office, New York. This was part
of a wider programme of collaboration with US authorities
which established joint protocols to enhance information
exchange and improve capacity and capability for
addressing economic crime and cyber crime.
Disrupting the digital
enablers of economic crime
We continue to work with partners to suspend websites,
telephone accounts and bank accounts linked to criminal
activity. In the past year we have sent nearly 150,000
suspension requests to partners in the UK and abroad. This
is an efficient and effective means of preventing fraud.
3,889
UK domains
suspended in the
period November
2014 to October 2015
95%
A key partner in
this is Nominet,
the UK website
domain provider
of these suspensions were requested
by City of London Police
15
Working with academia
The Economic Crime Academy is collaborating with
a number of academic institutions including Coventry
University London Campus. Our delegates will benefit
from Coventry University’s trading floor and staff, learning
how trading floors work, how fraud is committed and
what to look out for when investigating this type of crime.
Delegates can also practice giving evidence in a mock
court room with university law students acting as the
prosecution letting them experience a court room in a safe
environment. The Academy will also provide lectures to
university students.
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Annual Review 2015 - 16
The Economic Crime Academy sits on the Technical and
Executive Boards for the Counter Fraud Professional
Accreditation Board (CFPAB). CFPAB aims to establish
and maintain professional standards in professional
training courses in the field of counter fraud. Three of the
Academy’s courses have received awards from CFPAB
and accreditation from the University of Portsmouth.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and
Accountancy (CIPFA) has awarded those who
successfully complete the Economic Crime Academy’s
Specialist Fraud Investigators Programme affiliate status.
There is also a collaborative agreement underway for
the Academy and CIPFA to deliver a joint Certified
Programme in Counter Bribery and Corruption Studies.
We contributed to the research paper produced by
Cardiff University and commissioned by the City of
London Corporation on the Implications of Economic
Cybercrime for Policing. The purpose of the research
was to identify the key issues and complexities
surrounding cyber-enabled and cyber-dependent
economic crime. The report highlighted how businesses
and individuals are affected by economic cybercrime
and presented practical suggestions on how they may
be supported within the context of the ongoing pursue,
prevent, protect and prepare agendas. This report can
be found at www.cityoflondon.gov.uk.
Founding partner and
European lead for the
Global Cyber Alliance
We are a founder partner of the Global Cyber
Alliance, an international cyber security initiative
led by the District Attorney’s Office, New York and
the Centre for Internet Security based in Albany,
New York State. The alliance has been developed
by cyber security specialists, and international
law enforcement colleagues, to tackle the ever
increasing global threats posed by cyber attacks. It
seeks to increase collaboration to identify, combat
and eradicate these threats. This joint working
will enable information, intelligence and insight
on cyber risks to be shared. Members will work in
partnership to protect individuals and businesses
from identified threats and technical specialists will
engineer out identified cyber risks.
17
Pursuing
Criminals
We continue to bring offenders to justice. With
the geographical complexity of international
criminal gangs and money trails, our work reaches
across national and international borders. We are
conducting numerous joint operations involving
police and judicial authorities around the world.
Here are just a few successful investigations from
the past year.
Clamping down on insurance fraud
Payday lending fraud
The Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED)
marked its fourth anniversary in January 2016 with more
than 200 convictions and over 100 years of jail time for
insurance fraudsters.
Between 2012 and 2013, 19,013 fraudulent loan
applications, totalling £62m, were submitted to
Wonga.com. Through an internal systems failure 10,375
applications were approved to the value of £3.8m.
This included the sentencing of eight criminals at
Liverpool Crown Court who tried to claim thousands of
pounds in insurance payments after inventing a car crash
and the three year sentencing of a ghost broker convicted
of selling fraudulent motor vehicle insurance policies
which left his victims unknowingly uninsured.
IFED’s 2015 annual national day of action targeted
fraudulent household insurance claims and resulted in
multiple arrests across the country.
Convictions for money laundering and international
corruption
This year we concluded an eight year investigation into
the two international aid experts from the Netherlands
who were involved in stealing £27m from a United Nations
contract that was meant to boost healthcare delivery to
people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They
spent the first tranche of the cash they stole on two flats
and a house in London and were convicted of money
laundering and corruption shortly after Prime Minister,
David Cameron declared in a speech in Singapore that
the London property market was not a place for foreigners
“to stash your dodgy cash.”
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The applicants appeared to be victims of identity theft, who
had no knowledge of the application being made using
their details. The recipient account was that of a money
mule, completely unconnected to the applicant.
The money mules had one master current account with
a large number of linked savings accounts. The funds
derived from the fraudulent loan applications were paid
directly into the linked savings accounts, then transferred
to the master current account and disbursed.
Eleven suspects were charged and convicted in relation
to this matter. In total the criminals received 12 years in
custodial time, 180 hours of community service, 2 years in
suspended sentences and 340 hours unpaid work.
Successful outcomes
171
Suspects charged
159
Offenders convicted and
sentenced to a combined
total of 264 years
12
95
Organised crime groups
disrupted
Offender cautions
13
Community resolutions
19
Catching criminals on TV
Operation Studley
This year the work of our investigators was highlighted
in a new series of Fraud Squad with 2 million people per
episode tuning in to watch.
We investigated a large scale attack on standalone
ATMs. Malware was uploaded to over 50 ATM machines,
which resulted in £1.5m being stolen. The National Crime
Agency referred this to the London Regional Fraud
Team who identified this was linked to attacks on ATMs
internationally. Officers from the City of London Police,
assisted by a multi-agency group, executed warrants at
two addresses.
“ FraudSquadwasasgoodasapublicinformationfilm,
warninghoweasyitis,inthesedaysofrock-bottom
interestrates,tobescammedbythelureofeasyprofits.
Documentarieslikethisshouldberequiredviewing.
”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
“ Thegoodnewsisthefraudstershavenowallbeen
convicted.What’smore,they’llalsohavetolivewith
thehumiliatingknowledgethatmobile-phonefootageof
themdrunkenlycavortingtoJessieJ’s‘PriceTag’has
beenbroadcastonnationaltelevision.
Ellen E Jones, The Independent
”
The fifth series of Claimed and Shamed was broadcast
in June 2015. Viewers of the popular show, which
has previously achieved record viewing figures for its
timeslot, were given a front row seat as detectives from
IFED executed warrants, arrested suspects and seized
evidence. Claimed and Shamed has helped to increase
the number of suspected insurance frauds reported to the
Insurance Fraud Bureau’s Cheatline.
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Annual Review 2015 - 16
Two suspects were arrested, one of whom pleaded guilty
to conspiracy to defraud and received a five year prison
sentence. Another male was intercepted and sentenced in
January 2016 to seven years imprisonment.
Investment fraud
A company operating from the iconic Tower 42 was
discovered, in January 2012, to be selling bogus
investments in carbon credits and rare earth metals.
The company functioned as a typical boiler room with a
number of staff cold-calling potential victims to try and sell
them investment opportunities.
One victim, who met the fraudster on several occasions,
lost more than £150,000 to the fraud whilst another victim
was persuaded to invest almost £45,000, money that was
never seen again.
Bank statements collected by investigating officers
revealed that almost £1m of victims’ money was paid into
the company account, £350,000 of which was quickly
transferred into a personal account and a further £250,000
was spent on business expenses.
The rest of the funds went on a car, expensive holidays
and a children’s nursery. Officers found no evidence
that any of the victims’ money was actually put into an
investment scheme.
The fraudster, who made nearly £1m, was sentenced to 2.5
years in prison.
Types of fraud offences 2015
Percentage increase from 2014
+8%
+55%
Banking and credit
industry fraud
Mandate fraud
+23%
+53%
Insurance fraud
All charity fraud
+17%
+18%
Pension fraud
Corporate fraud
Source: Action Fraud, Cifas and Financial Fraud Action UK, National Fraud Intelligence Bureau
21
Economic
Crime
Directorate
National Coordinator for Economic Crime
Commander Christopher Greany
[email protected]
Head of Economic Crime Directorate
Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Clark
[email protected]
Operations
Economic Crime Academy
National Coordination
Office
Detective Superintendent
Maria Woodall
Kathy Hearn
Detective Superintendent
Alan Gooden
[email protected]
[email protected]
National Fraud and Cyber Reporting Centre
NFIB
Detective Superintendent
Matthew Bradford
[email protected]
22
Annual Review 2015 - 16
Action Fraud
Pauline Smith
[email protected]
[email protected]
Strategic Delivery Unit
Global Cyber Alliance
Alix Newbold
John Unsworth
[email protected]
[email protected]
23
www.cityoflondon.police.uk
www.twitter.com/CityPoliceFraud