Do the Funding Levels For the Fraud Regulators Impact the Threat of Fraud?
In the last decade billions have been invested in the generally wasteful public sector areas of health, policing and education.
More recently the failed banking system has been bailed out with sums measured in trillions! With even more cutbacks in public sector spending promised as a result the fear is that investment in fraud prevention and detection will suffer.
Barristers' and solicitors' income from criminal work has been eroded over recent years with the result that in some cases they have refused to act and accused parties have been allowed to walk free.
The cutbacks are now hitting the private sector fraud specialists and expert accountants who support the police and are essential for progressing any complex financial case.
In the UK the funding of expert accountants working in fraud cases will be reduced by around 20% according to the Legal Services Commission.
The police fraud squads and economic crime units are experiencing similar funding cuts.
Given their administrative burden they seem to have less and less time for front end policing.
The effects of this cascade down to what are considered to be less important crimes, including fraud, which end up being severely underfunded or even overlooked.
Commentators estimate the cost of fraud within the UK alone to be as much as a billion, with proportionately higher costs in the USA.
There is no way that approximately 450 full time police fraud officers can handle this level of economic crime? A lot of fraud is never reported for fear of publicity and is therefore not investigated.
We will never really know how much.
Loss due to fraud is a crime that is hidden beneath the surface of our daily lives and only that which is discovered, investigated and prosecuted is every fully counted.
The rest passes by unnoticed.
The clever fraudster will often target many thousands of victims each for a few hundreds of pounds.
Together the fraud may be worth millions, but each individual loss represents a person with no power or resource to do anything.
It is possible for the victims to proactively group together to fund their own private action but more often the case just fades into the background.
There is a lot of excitement concerning the new National Fraud Reporting Center.
Perhaps we will get a better understanding of the amount of fraud that is happening and then maybe we will see the resources put where they can be most effective in reducing the threat of fraud.
Funding trained police fraud officers and fully capable forensic accountants to investigate and bring successful fraud prosecutions is the only answer and with the promised harsh cut backs in public funding set to rise it seems that the fraudster may still be safe for a while yet.
More recently the failed banking system has been bailed out with sums measured in trillions! With even more cutbacks in public sector spending promised as a result the fear is that investment in fraud prevention and detection will suffer.
Barristers' and solicitors' income from criminal work has been eroded over recent years with the result that in some cases they have refused to act and accused parties have been allowed to walk free.
The cutbacks are now hitting the private sector fraud specialists and expert accountants who support the police and are essential for progressing any complex financial case.
In the UK the funding of expert accountants working in fraud cases will be reduced by around 20% according to the Legal Services Commission.
The police fraud squads and economic crime units are experiencing similar funding cuts.
Given their administrative burden they seem to have less and less time for front end policing.
The effects of this cascade down to what are considered to be less important crimes, including fraud, which end up being severely underfunded or even overlooked.
Commentators estimate the cost of fraud within the UK alone to be as much as a billion, with proportionately higher costs in the USA.
There is no way that approximately 450 full time police fraud officers can handle this level of economic crime? A lot of fraud is never reported for fear of publicity and is therefore not investigated.
We will never really know how much.
Loss due to fraud is a crime that is hidden beneath the surface of our daily lives and only that which is discovered, investigated and prosecuted is every fully counted.
The rest passes by unnoticed.
The clever fraudster will often target many thousands of victims each for a few hundreds of pounds.
Together the fraud may be worth millions, but each individual loss represents a person with no power or resource to do anything.
It is possible for the victims to proactively group together to fund their own private action but more often the case just fades into the background.
There is a lot of excitement concerning the new National Fraud Reporting Center.
Perhaps we will get a better understanding of the amount of fraud that is happening and then maybe we will see the resources put where they can be most effective in reducing the threat of fraud.
Funding trained police fraud officers and fully capable forensic accountants to investigate and bring successful fraud prosecutions is the only answer and with the promised harsh cut backs in public funding set to rise it seems that the fraudster may still be safe for a while yet.