| By :
Mark Jenner
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. This process is now hitting the forensic accountants who are essential for the proper outcome of most fraud cases. The Legal Services Commission in the UK intend reducing the money paid to experts by 20% in 2010, a disproportionate amount of the overall reductions in public sector funding they have been asked to make. 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. This will result in the underfunding or even overlooking of the so called 'non serious' crimes that inevitably will include fraud. Commentators estimate the cost of fraud within the UK alone to be as much as 䀆 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? Much fraud goes both unreported and un-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 cunning thief can target a huge number of victims for just a couple of thousand pounds each. Lumped together the whole fraud will be worth a substantial sum, but each victim separately has little power or voice 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.
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