Fraud offences (48A/22)
Request
1.The number of officers currently assigned to the fraud squad or economic crime unit;
2.The number of crimes received in 2021, 2015 and 2010;
For the following offences:
Attempted – Possess/Control article(s) for use in fraud(s) – 053/43
Fraud by False Representation 053/40
Making or Supplying Articles for use in Frauds 053/44
Possess/Control articles(s) for use in fraud(s) 053/43
3.The number of current, i.e as at February 2022, (of the four above) ongoing investigations where charges have not yet been brought;
4.The number outcomes of the above offences for the year 2021.
Response
Please find enclosed our response:
Q1:
1 Detective Inspector
5 Detective Sergeants
1 Civilian Supervisor
28 Detective Constables
2 Police Staff Investigators
4 Business Support Officers
1 Analyst
7 Financial Investigator staff
Q2 & Q4:
| The number of crimes received in 2010 for 053/43, 053/40 & 053/44 | |
| Offence Title | Total |
| FRAUD BY FALSE REPRESENTATION – CHEQUE, PLASTIC CARD AND ONLINE BANK ACCOUNTS | 953 |
| MAKING/SUPPLYING ARTICLES FOR USE IN FRAUD | 38 |
| POSSESS/CONTROL ARTICLES FOR USE IN FRAUDS | 34 |
| Grand Total | 1025 |
| The number of crimes received in 2015 for 053/43, 053/40 & 053/44 | |
| Offence Title | Total |
| MAKING/SUPPLYING ARTICLES FOR USE IN FRAUD | 86 |
| POSSESS/CONTROL ARTICLES FOR USE IN FRAUDS | 18 |
| Grand Total | 104 |
The number of crimes received in 2021 for 53/43, 53/40 & 53/44 (plus outcomes)
| Outcome Code | ||||||
| Offence Title | Awaiting Outcome | OC1 | OC14 | OC15 | OC16 | Total |
| Fraud by False Representation | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Making or supplying articles for use in frauds | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 12 |
| Possess/control article(s) for use in fraud(s) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 10 |
| Grand Total | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 15 | 26 |
Key: OC = Outcome type
OC1 = Charge or summons
OC14 = Evidential Difficulties Victim Based-Named Suspect Not Identified: Crime Confirmed But The Victim Either Declines Or Unable To Support Further Police Investigation To Identify The Offender
OC15 = Named suspect identified: victim supports police action but evidential difficulties prevent further action.
OC16 = Named suspect identified: evidential difficulties prevent further action: victim does not support (or has withdrawn support from) Police action.
West Midlands Police have not recorded any of the above offences in 2022 to date.
Q3:
As of 4th Feb 2022, there are 533 fraud cases that are currently open.
Please note that these data should be interpreted with caution. Comparing numbers of incidents/crimes can be misleading and does not necessarily indicate the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime. In addition, the number of incidents/crimes recorded in an area over a period of time can be influenced by a number of factors. Consequently, statistics on incidents/crimes for one period may not necessarily be a good indicator of future incidents in that area.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are considered when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be considered when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.
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