Fraud team numbers 856/2022

FOI Reference: 856/2022

Request:

1. Your total staff numbers, broken down by officers and non-officers.
2. The number of police officers/staff assigned to your fraud desk. If possible can you please break this down by the number of police officers vs regular staff, and full time vs part time workers on the fraud desk.
3. The number of fraud offences reported to your police force (either by the public or passed on by a fraud agency such as Action Fraud, CIFAS or NFIB), for each of the past 5 years (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017).
4. The number of these fraud cases in each year which were investigated by a police officer.
5. The number of these fraud cases in each year "solved" (i.e. a suspect was charged, cautioned or had an out of court penalty).
6. The average time between a fraud case getting reported and the force investigating it, for each of the past 5 years (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017).

I appreciate that cases may not be investigated/solved in the same year that they were reported to your force.

Clarification received:

There has been some confusion around Question 3. Just to clarify, with this question I was interested in the number of fraud cases which your police force would be expected to investigate, as opposed to all cases reported to you. I should have worded it like so:

3. The number of fraud cases referred to your police force for which you would be expected to investigate (either from the public or passed on by a fraud agency such as Action Fraud, CIFAS or NFIB), for each of the past 5 years (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017).

Response 1:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, the details of which are as follows:

• 1,277 Police officers
• 812 Police staff

Response 2:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, the details of which are as follows:

• The Force Economic Crime Team has 1 full time police staff member assigned to the fraud desk. However, in that individuals absence the role is covered by other staff within the Economic Crime Team.

Response 3 & 4:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, the details of which are as follows:

Please note: We have interpreted questions 3 & 4 as the number of fraud crime recorded.

Response 5:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, the details of which are as follows:

Please note: The term ‘solved’ could be misinterpreted.  To avoid any misinterpretation the figures provided below consist of following outcomes:

• Charged
• Reported for Summons/Summons
• Diversionary, educational or intervention activity
• Youth Caution
• Youth Conditional Caution
• Adult Caution
• Adult Conditional Caution
• Adult Community Resolution
• Youth Community Resolution
• Youth Restorative Disposal

It should also be noted that the figures below do not include outcomes whereby an individual has been charged or summonsed for an alternative offence.

Response 6:

I can confirm that there is no information held by Dyfed Powys police as average times are not recorded.

It should be noted that owing to the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such matters the information provided may or may not be accurate. Police Forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recoding criteria is set nationally.  However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted that for these reasons this Force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.           

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 06/12/22)