Press Release

FLA WELCOMES ACPO FRAUD REPORT

7 March 2007

The Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) today welcomed research commissioned by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) on fraud levels. We are pleased because the results help to clarify the extent of fraud in the UK.

Professor Levi acknowledges that his estimate of £13 billion is a conservative estimate but, to put even this conservative estimate into context, this exceeds the total annual cost of running the police in England and Wales (£10 billion).

We are looking forward to reading the government’s response to the Fraud Review on 15 March. We trust that the government will acknowledge the harm caused by fraud and will start to take appropriate action to tackle fraud, such as creating a new National Fraud Reporting Centre.

The cost of fraud to motor finance members of FLA, which is included in the report at £15 million, represents only a tiny percentage of the total cost of fraud to the UK economy, but nevertheless FLA members take the prevention and investigation of fraud very seriously and are keen to continue to help deny criminals the use of the road and access to financial services. Our members fund the Vehicle Fraud Unit – part of the Metropolitan Police Service – which recovers fraudulently-obtained vehicles on finance. To date, the Unit has recovered cars worth over £9 million. In addition we sponsor the Port of Tilbury police force to enable them to devote extra resources to checking and recovering vehicles that were subject either to finance or to an insurance claim and have recently made a donation of £20,000 to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service. This will enable the Service to put its systems in place.

FLA Director General Martin Hall welcomed the report:

"There are few better placed than Professor Levi to guide us on these difficult estimations, and this is the best figure we have to work on. The private sector, in the financial services, is making huge efforts to fight fraud. We hope the Government will make a strongly positive response to the Fraud Review, within an integrated policy on financial crime."