Attorney General's Office

Attorney General: opening speech to ACPO Fraud Forum

The Rt Hon the Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC

I would like to thank the Association of Chief Police Officers, in particular Commissioner Bowron, for inviting me to attend this important conference. It is a real pleasure to have an opportunity to speak to you, the counter-fraud community at this very important conference. By your individual and combined efforts, you are really delivering the commitments the Government has made to tackling fraud - and making it a reality. We are now six months on from the launch of the National Fraud Strategy and it is good to reflect on the progress we have made, but also to focus our attention and our minds on what we need to do next.

I want to thank each and every one of you for the commitment and the passion which has made this journey so far possible - and for the effort you will make which will ensure successful completion of the objectives we've set together so that we will be able to create an environment which is truly hostile to fraud; productive and effective for business and especially small businesses; and safe for all the people for whom we care.

I know we have much to cover so in this introductory session I'd just like to focus on two issues within the strategy. Firstly, stepping up the enforcement response to fraud, and secondly, improving the support we provide to victims of fraud. These are areas where we need to be really hard-headed and perhaps self-critical in assessment of our performance. We've started and need to continue. Effective collaboration between law enforcement and law and policy makers will be key to success. I speak to you today in that spirit of collaboration. We've tried doing this on our own before. We all know we need a conjoined effort.

The challenge

I don't need to tell you of the harm that fraud causes to our citizens, to our communities and to our country's economic well-being. Organised criminals involved in drugs and human trafficking use fraud to fund their crimes. Criminals have also made massive profits from individual frauds. But we should also not underestimate the impact of high volume but lower value frauds. These can have a great impact on our communities. Housing tenancy fraud was recently conservatively estimated to have reduced available social housing for allocation in England by nearly 50,000 properties - and if we think of the families and individuals that would have benefited from those properties, the loss is very palpable; false claims for single person discounts on council tax, are estimated at £90 million each year. Every pound stolen by fraudsters is money that is not available to fund public services. We all know how vital these public services are. In the challenging economic circumstances we face it is even more important to strengthen our fight against fraud.

Progress

Since the launch of the national fraud strategy, there have been some notable operational successes. It is important that we celebrate this. Metropolitan Police led operations, working with international partners, have led to the arrests across the globe of criminals perpetrating identity-related crime over the internet. The City of London Police should be especially congratulated. They led investigations that resulted in the successful prosecutions of a number of company directors, as well as gangs undertaking credit card fraud. Operation Maxim continues to disrupt factories in London producing false identity documents and credit cards. Over the past 10 years, we have cut benefit fraud by 60%. I really want to congratulate everyone, especially those here in this room, who have contributed to these notable successes.

Multi-agency efforts to tackle some of the biggest areas of fraud are also now better developed. We've got a programme of work to tackle mortgage fraud and multi-agency efforts to tackle mass marketing fraud and identity fraud. They are all now underway. These are supported by the National Fraud Authority's efforts to develop better knowledge of the impact of fraud, to improve information sharing and to raise the public's awareness of the threat of fraud and how they can protect themselves. Engaging the public in this way is key.

The Government is committed to placing victims at the heart of the criminal justice system and victims of fraud are no exception. The joint ACPO/NFA led research on fraud victims has drawn on the experiences of 800 victims, the largest group of fraud victims surveyed in the UK to date. The group surveyed covered the range of fraud victims ranging from the young, educated and professional, through to the elderly and most vulnerable. It provides an authoritative assessment of current support arrangements. The research confirms that what victims most want is to understand what fraud they have suffered, where they can report it and what steps they need to take to reduce the likelihood of becoming victims again. One particularly telling statistic is that 40 per cent of the sample group did not even know they had been victims until they had been contacted by an official body.

This is why delivery of the National Fraud Reporting Centre is so crucial to the work we have to do together. It will be the clearly-signposted place to report fraud and will give victims the most up-to-date information and advice that is available. This will help us to reduce the repeat victimization that fraudsters are getting away with all too often.

Improving our support for victims also yields other benefits in terms of fraud and crime interdiction. The more reports the Centre receives, the richer will be our intelligence picture about the extent of fraud and fraud trends. This will also help to target enforcement resources in a more effective way.

Despite what you may have read in the press, the National Fraud Reporting Centre is on track. The National Fraud Authority is set to launch the new National Fraud Reporting Centre on 26 October 2009. The NFRC will be rolled out initially as a pilot in the West Midlands area, followed by a progressive roll out across the country over the following three to six months. Bernard Herdan will say more about this and the practicalities later in the conference.

But the Reporting Centre is not the whole story in terms of our efforts to support victims. Victims of fraud deserve the same treatment as that provided for victims of other crimes and I am committed to achieving this. Our research shows that we need to work with a number of the counter-fraud agencies so that they get closer to the service levels of the City of London Police which came top in terms of victims' satisfaction with the Police. That is something to aspire to. I hope this conference is one way that ACPO can come together, help other Forces and organisations to deliver this high quality service. We will also continue to ask victims that come into contact with any counter-fraud agency, including those in my own Law Officers' Departments, about the treatment they have received. This feedback will be scrutinised at the most senior level and will be a regular item on the agenda for the Ministerial Group on Fraud that I chair.

International engagement

But we should not just look within our country. British citizens are affected by fraud which is often perpetrated outside our borders. Overcoming blockages to effective international cooperation is not easy but remains a high priority for us all. New initiatives such as the International Prosecutors Group that met recently in Kiev and the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative of the UN are promoting operational cooperation. I am also aware that the NFA has had fruitful meetings with US, Canadian and Australian counterparts recently. We need to develop internationally focused strategies with like-minded partners to be effective in tackling fraud.

European coordination

Yesterday I was in the Hague visiting Eurojust and Europol where I was very impressed by the progress we are making working together across Europe. There is a first-class British team there. Eurojust brings prosecutors from each member state of the European Union plus representatives from other countries working together with Europol and national police forces to address cross border crime. I want to tell you about one of the cases we explored when I was there yesterday.

One such Belgian-led investigation, now at the prosecution stage, concerned credit card skimming fraud on a European wide scale running to tens of millions of Euros, with wider involvement in Australia and Canada. Present at the co-ordination meeting for this case were teams of police and prosecutors from Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Romania, the United Kingdom and Canada. Europol officers were also in attendance to offer analytical support. Belgium had previously issued a Letter of Request to the UK (and an identical request to the Republic of Ireland) to trace and interview "Gerry" who may live in Northern Ireland or the Republic, who may or may not drive a black BMW, and who might use one of two unsubscribed pay-as-you-go mobile telephone numbers. The UK Police officers present advised the meeting that, despite best efforts, Gerry had not been found! At that point the Spanish delegation interrupted to say, "We know Gerry. His full name is Gerry X and his parents live in Y. His full passport number is Z". The value for money and efficiency in bringing together the right people at the right time are obvious. If they had not got together, they would never have discovered the need for this information - and I am reliably informed that it is not just the Spanish helping us - we have helped them too!

This large scale fraud is typical of the often complex cases dealt with at Eurojust. 2008 saw 1193 new cases opened at Eurojust and added to the existing case work. Financial crime and associated offences made up the greatest proportion of the workload, with 912 new cases covering money laundering, VAT fraud, tax fraud, other fraud, swindling, and crimes against property or public goods. It's big business. Along with drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings, the smuggling of illegal immigrants, and terrorism, these crime types are the most significant risk in Europe's future. Eurojust has dedicated teams with members drawn from different National Desks to develop expertise in these crime areas and to provide advice at a policy and strategic level. In addition to this, Eurojust works closely with Europol, utilising Europol's intelligence analysis to identify together these priorities. Just recently, Eurojust and Europol issued a protocol which will be really helpful in improving joint working.

Greater priority on fraud

The Fraud Review, the National Fraud Strategy and the resources the Government has provided for the NFA and for the Lead Force demonstrate our commitment to work together to tackle fraud. More recently the Government's strategy for tackling organised crime, titled "Extending our Reach", emphasized that tackling fraud is part of the wider effort in this area. This gives the counter-fraud community the opportunity to make the case that disrupting and convicting fraudsters protects our communities not just against financial losses but also from the wider miseries that organised crime inflicts on them. It also means - quite rightly - that we will be more accountable for delivering what we have undertaken to do. This is now mainstream activity, it is not an optional extra.

Making a difference, changing attitudes

We will ensure that you, the law enforcement community, have the tools you need to perform your roles to full effect - whether these are strategic, legislative or more practical. We will listen to you when you are facing challenges and work with you. When you see solutions, we will be there to help make them happen. Please do seize opportunities like this conference to influence our thinking and priorities and to share your experiences and learn from your colleagues. There's an incredible wealth of experience in this room.

I cannot under-state the importance of this work. The consequences of failure are horrendous. The integrity of global markets depends on the strength of national and international protection against fraud and insider dealing. But it is equally important that we support victims at an individual level and help communities and individuals to better protect themselves. It is just as devastating for a pensioner robbed of their life savings, regardless whether this was by a by ruthless organized criminal gang or an individual conman. The pain for that individual is the same.

We must tackle this at an international, national, local and individual level. So we face a big challenge - it won't go away and it won't be easy. But I do believe profoundly that by working together, in partnership we can make a difference at every level. I am buoyed by the attendance of you all today which demonstrates that our collective commitment is strong and that we can make our nation the most hostile place for fraud. I want to thank you for your efforts to date and those you will make in the future to help protect your country. For yesterday, today and tomorrow, we need your passion and hard work. Thank you for your time.