Middle-class fraudsters face clampdown

By DAN ATKINSON, MAIL ON SUNDAY ECONOMICS EDITOR
Updated: 04:00 EST, 20 December 2009

A New Year offensive is being planned against fraud committed or aided by middle-class professionals.

Target: Anti-fraud police will clampdown on middle-class fraudsters

Solicitors, accountants and bankers - and even doctors and dentists - are to be targeted by the leading anti-fraud force in England and Wales.

'Fraud by such people does serious damage to the integrity of the whole system,' said Detective Chief Superintendent Stephen Head, who runs the City of London Police economic crime department.

'On top of the lack of trust created when such people engage in fraud, they are worth pursuing also because they are pivotal people who are in a position to carry out some of the more damaging frauds.'

A final reason to go after them, he said, was simply that they 'ought to know better'.

His remarks come just weeks after Dave Hartnett, Permanent Secretary for Tax at Revenue & Customs, said that judges and tax barristers found to have dodged what they owed could expect harsher treatment than others.

While first-time tax offenders tend to escape prosecution, that indulgence would not be extended to those whose job it is to administer the system, he said.

Head said the pursuit of swindlers hiding behind the cloak of professional respectability was part of a shift in priorities.

'As with the drugs trade, there is little point in picking up a lot of small fry while the big operators get off free,' he said. 'I want to concentrate on maybe five very big fraudsters in place of 20 smaller ones.

'That is what is going to make a difference to the actual, published crime statistics.

'So many operators of dubious investment vehicles are overseas,' he added. 'But I am sure that we can take down at least some of the big targets. That will send a very powerful message.'