Frauds and scams 2020;2021;2022 (1575A/22)
Request
- a) How many reports of fraud and scams did this police force receive in 2020, 2021 and so far in 2022? (If the force records fraud and scams as separate crimes, please provide data for both)
- b) Of these cases, how many were investigated by the force and how many resulted in a prosecution?
Response
Please find enclosed our response.
It is important to understand the process of how reports of fraud are received and dealt with in West Midlands Police.
When a victim of fraud telephones us, if it is not a call for service (ie someone needs to attend), then that victim is directed to Action Fraud. If it is a call for service then an officer will attend and this will also again be referred to Action Fraud. All frauds are reported to Action Fraud. Another way a victim may reported a fraud is direct to Action fraud via their online reporting service.
Action Fraud then triage those reports and based on solvability a percentage is returned to Force for investigation. Upon their return each report will be given a West Midlands Police Crime number so that the investigation may commence.
Therefore, as a result when a request asks for “all frauds reported to West Midlands Police for the year 2021” for example. This will be the total figure sent to Action Fraud, not the figure returned to us for investigation. The figure sent back to us for investigation will be considerably lower than the figure that Action Fraud receive.
You can find more information in Action Fraud and the National Fraud Investigation Bureau on the links below. The two work in conjunction with each other.
Who are the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau? | Action Fraud
- a) How many reports of fraud and scams did this police force receive in 2020, 2021 and so far in 2022? (If the force records fraud and scams as separate crimes, please provide data for both)
The total Fraud reports in WMP for the following years, (these are the reports that have all gone to Action Fraud un-triaged)
2020 -15803
2022 – 17415
2022 to date (8/12/2022) – 12,636
- b) Of these cases, how many were investigated by the force and how many resulted in a prosecution?
These are the triaged reports sent back to Force for investigation by Action Fraud.
Figures as at 2nd Dec 2022
| Offence Titles | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Grand Total |
| Attempted – Fraud etc | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Fraud – Non Crime | 2358 | 2250 | 1228 | 5836 |
| Fraud by False Representation | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Fraud etc | 0 | 7 | 4 | 11 |
| Fraud, forgery etc associated with driving licence | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Fraud, forgery etc associated with insurance certificate | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Fraud, forgery etc associated with registration and licensing documents | 16 | 5 | 5 | 26 |
| Fraudulent evasion of duty etc | 4 | 1 | 5 | |
| Making or supplying articles for use in frauds | 17 | 12 | 5 | 34 |
| Possess/control article(s) for use in fraud(s) | 9 | 10 | 5 | 24 |
| Grand Total | 2406 | 2293 | 1252 | 5951 |
| Outcomes | Count of Crime Number |
| Pending | 372 |
| Caution – Adult (Inc Conditional Caution) | 61 |
| Caution – Youth (Inc Conditional Caution) | 1 |
| Charge or Summons | 149 |
| Community Resolution | 23 |
| Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action | 1 |
| Evidential Difficulties – Victim Based – Named suspect not identified | 318 |
| Further action will be taken by another body | 94 |
| Investigation Complete: No suspect identified | 2192 |
| Named Suspect identified: evidential difficulties prevent further action(no victim support) | 939 |
| Named Suspect identified: evidential difficulties prevent further action(victim support) | 1658 |
| Non Crime closure | 135 |
| Postal Charge With Alternative Offence | 2 |
| Suspect Identified, but not in the public interest for police to investigate | 4 |
| Taken into consideration (TIC) | 2 |
| Grand Total | 5951 |
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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