The City of London is widely recognised as the world's leading
financial and business centre. There are over 450 international
banks sited within the 'square mile' and more than 300,000 people
travel to work here every day generating tens of billions of pounds
for the UK economy. Whilst this is what makes the City the vibrant
and important area that it is, it also brings with it the risk of
fraudulent economic crimes.
The principal responsibility for tackling economic crime in the
City rests with the City of London Police Economic Crime
Directorate. The Economic Crime Directorate (ECD), led by Chief
Superintendent Steve Head, is a major partner in the City of London
Safer City Partnership and its reputation for success in
investigating fraud is considerable - in 2008/09, for example,
72.5% of crime investigated by the unit was cleared up.
The reduction and prevention of economic crime has been
set as a Safer City Partnership priority because of its impact
on:
- The reputation of and international confidence in the
City.
In order to have a centralised team able to collate all activities
taken against fraud an Economic Crime Thematic Group has been set
up which is chaired by Assistant Commissioner Frank Armstrong, City
of London Police. The group comprises of senior police officers,
SCP support team members and other partnership members. Meetings
are held quarterly to co-ordinate initiatives.
Below are the activities identified by the group to help
combat economic crime:
- Increase engagement with partner agencies to maximise, local,
regional and national response and tasking<<LI> Develop a
strategy so as to raise public awareness of current fraud trends to
minimise the number of persons becoming victim to life changing
fraudulent crime
- Increase knowledge of fraud crime through a National Fraud
Reporting Centre (NFRC
- Work with key stakeholders to assess muti-agency needs and
connectivity for the NFRC
- Work with key stakeholders to assess multi-agency needs and
connectivity for a National Fraud Intelligence Bureau
(NFIB)
- Continue engagement with key stakeholders in the financial
services industry and other agencies to identify emerging threats
and crime trends to facilitate early intervention and
disruption
There is a large amount of material available to assist members
of the public to safeguard themselves against fraud and direct
links are provided below:
If you would like a copy of the summary or full partnership plan
please contact
safercity@cityoflondon.gov.uk
or call 020 7332 3808.
For more information from the police contact
www.cityoflondon.police.uk/citypolice/ecd