New UK fraud taskforce established

The UK Government has announced that it is to set up a new taskforce consisting of police, banks and government officials to combat fraud across the UK.

Home Secretary Theresa May said part of the Joint Fraud Taskforce’s work will be to publish a list of the county’s 10 most-wanted fraudsters.

However, officials also said the force is being established with the aim of speeding up intelligence sharing between banks and authorities to ensure a more co-ordinated approach to serious and organised crime gangs, whose activities cost Britain at least £24million a year.

Last week, figures showed a rise in so-called CEO fraud, where a worker moves cash after a “bogus boss” email and this week it was revealed that a major Scottish firm had been the target of such a scam at a cost of £18m.

The Joint Fraud Taskforce will include Financial Fraud Action UK, the City of London Police, National Crime Agency, Bank of England, fraud prevention agency Cifas and CEOs of the major banks.

The new taskforce will be announced by the home secretary at an event today which will also be attended by Bank of England governor Mark Carney.

The home secretary is expected to say that “fraud shames our financial system”.

“It undermines the credibility of the economy, ruins businesses and causes untold distress to people of all walks of life,” she is to say.

“For too long, there has been too little understanding of the problem and too great a reluctance to take steps to tackle it.”

The force’s task list will include: