National Fraud Strategy sets delivery dates

UK£14 billion almost sounds small after the hundreds of billions thrown around in the attempt to avert a new Depression and in the wake of the Madoff Ponzi scam, which, alone, may have netted US$65 billion. It is still a significant number though, standing as the latest best estimate, by an Association of Chief Police Officers study in 2007, of fraud in the UK: £231 a year for every man, woman and child. If one of the objectives in The National Fraud Strategy, published in March, is achieved, the true scale of the problem, will be better known. A national Fraud Measurement Unit is to be set up, costing £1.6m, as part of the UK£29m three-year funding programme for the National Fraud Strategic Authority (NFSA). UK£10.7m will pay for the operation of the NFSA and another UK£16m will be invested in the National Fraud Reporting Centre (NFRC), National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) and to establish the National Lead Police Force for Fraud in the City of London Police.