Financial crime on the rise in Scotland

The force’s management information report reveals that there were 1,955 incidents of fraud in the first quarter of 2017-18.

However, that rose to 2,584 this year.

The biggest increase appeared in East Renfrewshire, with figures trebling to 18. In Inverclyde, the figures jumped from 14 to 36.

Assistant chief constable Malcolm Graham said: “Advances in technology pose an increased vulnerability when tackling fraud and we have seen an increasing trend in online fraud and crimes involving contactless payments.

“With this form of technology, stolen cards can be monetised quickly and easily while online shopping also allows cloned cards and stolen card details to be used fraudulently.”

Crimes of fraud rose by 56 per cent in Glasgow to 495, while Edinburgh saw a 40.7 per cent increase and Fife a 53 per cent one.

East Lothian saw the number of frauds decline from 37 to 21 while in the Highlands the number fell from 137 to 81.

Mr Graham added: “We are investing in resources and equipping officers with the necessary skills to tackle this growing area of criminality.

“We are also working ever more closely with our banking colleagues. New work in this area is actively preventing fraud through the Banking Protocol, which allows us to protect those who are vulnerable to financial crime.

“Between April and June 2018, £1.05 million was prevented by Bank and Police teams protecting vulnerable, often elderly, account holders.”