We know CPA behaviours can often include financial abuse – either through theft, coercing parents into making purchases, or taking out credit cards and other items in the parent’s name. The latter of course is fraud, and anecdotally we know that many parents affected by CPA would fall under that 85% who don’t report the incident.

That’s why we were concerned to read the report’s findings, which include:

• Fraud cases have surged by 24% during the Covid pandemic.

• Fraud has grown hugely in recent years and now accounts for 39% of all crime.

• Estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed there were 4.6 million fraud offences in the year ending March 2021, compared to 3 million incidents of theft and 1.6 million incidents of violent crime. 

These crimes may not be officially recorded for a variety of reasons, including fear, embarrassment and intimidation, all of which are often factors when CPA is occurring – as well as parents understandably not wanting report their children to authorities for such a serious offence.

The study concluded that too many victims still receive poor service from the police and are denied justice, and that both investigation and prevention of fraud services remain under-resourced. 

Currently 2% of police resources are allocated to fraud, and fewer than 8,000 prosecutions were recorded in 2019. In July 2021, the Government published its ‘Beating Crime’ plan and promised to replace Action Fraud with an improved national fraud and cybercrime reporting system. This may facilitate the ways to report fraud, yet the emotional impact is just as important.

The Victims’ Commissioner, Dame Vera Baird QC, said: “We know that the police response to fraud, though getting better, is still not good enough. But it’s not just the investigative response to fraud that needs attention. We need to know how well the overwhelming majority of fraud victims – who will not get a criminal justice outcome – are being supported. Most experience little to no victim are.”

Diana Fawcett, Chief Executive of the independent charity Victim Support, added: “We welcome this timely and detailed report from the Victims’ Commissioner. The publication of the Government’s fraud strategy can’t come soon enough – it needs to be bold, ambitious and backed up by significant resourcing.”

You can read the full report here.