Met chief: Police must do more to beat hidden threat of cyber crime

 
The Met Commissioner admitted more must be done to tackle cyber crime (Picture: Rex)
David Churchill22 July 2015

Barely one in 10 alleged cyber thefts and frauds on Londoners and the capital’s businesses are being investigated by police, figures revealed by the Met Commissioner indicate.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has admitted the figures are “worrying” for his force’s reputation, and warns that the “hidden threat” from online swindlers will continue to go under-investigated across the country if a fresh approach is not adopted.

He revealed that between February and May this year, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau recorded 10,355 reports of online scams in the capital, worth £86 million.

But in the same period only 1,331 reports (12.85 per cent) were passed on to UK police forces to investigate, while 874 (eight per cent) were referred to the Met. Meanwhile, 5,964 reports were passed on to the force in the same period when victims from outside London are included. Last year, the Met received 24,000 such reports, which are now tackled by its FALCON cyber unit, which was launched in October.

Online fraud and theft reports are assessed by analysts at the NFIB, run by City of London police, which decides which force to pass them on to for investigation. However, in a letter to London Assembly member Roger Evans, Sir Bernard said: “There is significant under-reporting in this area but, more worryingly in my view, is the amount of reports that are not disseminated to forces for action as this particularly impacts on the public’s confidence and satisfaction in the Met.

“The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau disseminate crimes for investigation on agreed criteria that does not necessarily locate an investigation in the force area where the victim lives… With online crime being reported in a separate way to all other offences there is a danger that this hidden threat continues to receive less attention nationally than it rightly deserves.”

He said he was working with the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers to improve the situation.

Mr Evans, chair of City Hall’s Online Crime Working Group, said: “We need a general level of capability in the Met police so this isn’t just investigated by specialists.”

A City of London police spokesman said: “The crime reports which are disseminated by the NFIB are those crimes that officers have the best opportunity to detect and deter. However, all reports are stored for further analysis so that if new evidence is unearthed, the information can be used as part of any future investigation.”