Fraud investigations 667/2022
FOI Reference: 667/2022
Request:
For 2021 and for the last 10 years
- Number of cases you have recorded as under the overall heading of ‘Fraud’.
- Number of cases per point 1 where a conviction has been recorded.
- Number of cases per point 1 referred to the CPS.
- How many of the cases in 1 identified a male perpetrator, a female perpetrator, cases where the gender identified was not as assigned at birth, and the number where gender could not be identified.
- The age demographics of the victims by ONS standard ten year age grouping.
- Top three reasons CPS rejected the case.
- Average time in days cases remained open or ‘under investigation’ prior to being closed for any reason.
- Average time in days of the cases which led to a conviction being closed.
- Number of cases leading to a custodial sentence
- Number of cases progressed by the CPS which failed to secure a conviction at court, for any reason.
Clarification:
Clarification was sought and information was requested for both crimes and incidents.
Response:
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Dyfed Powys Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information you have requested. However we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12(1) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.
Section 12 (1) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit
Section 12(1) states: “…Section 1 (1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”
The cost of providing you with the information requested in respect of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the “appropriate level” as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. It is estimated that it would exceed 18 hours (i.e. minimum of 78.87 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @ www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2004/20043244.htm
The Freedom of Information department has been advised that the information in respect of questions 3 and 6 of your request for fraud crimes is not held in an easily retrievable format. In light of this and in order to accurately obtain the information relative to your request for the time frame stipulated would involve Dyfed Powys Police accessing and reviewing all crime records that could potentially have been referred to CPS for pre-charge advice to ascertain whether that crime was referred for or not and to ascertain if a reason was recorded for a rejection of a case by CPS. It has been established that there are a total of 1,183 crime records that cover the period of your request and it has also been established that it would take a minimum of 4 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single crime (as outlined above). The process outlined results in the below time estimate.
2011 - 2021 = 1183 crime records@ a minimum of 4 minutes per record = 11.50 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 78.87 hours
Please note: The information in respect of question 9 of you request is also not held in an easily retrievable format and would exceed the 18 hour time limit equating to approximately an additional 22 hours in order to provide a response. Furthermore, question 10 would require an additional time estimate, which has not been under taken as the request has already exceeded the 18 hour time limit. It should also be noted that a response to questions 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8 can be provided within the 18 hour time limit. In relation to incidents a response to question 1 can be provided within the 18 hour time limit, however, due to the way information is recorded on the systems utilised it is likely that there is no information held in respect of questions 2 – 10 for incidents. Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the public authorities right to cite exemptions if relevant.
In accordance therefore with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for the Whole of this request under Section 17(5) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is relying on a claim that section 12 or section 14 applies must, within the time for complying with section 1(1), give the applicant a notice stating that fact. You may wish to refine and resubmit your request so that it reduces the time shown above to fall within the 18 hours, should you require any further advice in relation to this matter please don’t hesitate to contact the Freedom of Information Unit.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 04/10/22)