Police will treat fraud cases the same as terrorism in bid to crackdown on growing crime

Fraud will be given the same status as terrorism in a £30million drive to fight a crime making up 30 per cent of offences, it was reported yesterday.

The cash injection will be used to build a ‘super brain’ computer system using artificial intelligence to analyse all fraud and identify criminals behind it.

It will be added to the strategic policing requirement, meaning forces have to treat it as a priority alongside public disorder, organised crime, terrorism and child sexual abuse.

Plus there will be an overhaul of the much-criticised Action Fraud, the dedicated unit based at the City of London Police, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

Ten regional fraud squads have also been set up with 96 officers recruited so far. 

The cash injection will be used to build a ‘super brain’ computer system using artificial intelligence to analyse all fraud and identify criminals behind it. It will be added to the strategic policing requirement, meaning forces have to treat it as a priority alongside public disorder, organised crime, terrorism and child sexual abuse

Police hope the new computer set to launch next year will ‘join the dots’ to identify fraudsters.

Last year the Daily Mail told how the UK has become the global capital of fraud, with losses up to nearly £3billion annually.

Commander Nik Adams, of City of London Police, has been tasked with revamping the police response and said it was ‘staggering’ that 300 victims of fraud are at risk of suicide and self-harm every year.

‘There is huge investment going into a new action fraud system to take on board calls and crimes. 

‘An immense investment into the analytical capability that sits behind that and an immense investment into the victim care service that has been built over a number of years now,’ he told the Sunday Telegraph.

‘We hope the technology will be better at scraping all that digital information to join the dots, recognise patterns and therefore prioritise certain investigations in a more streamlined, effective way in future.’

All fraud will continue to be reported to Action Fraud, or a rebranded unit, which will then determine whether it is of sufficient scale to pass the investigation to the National Crime Agency or new reinforced regional police teams.