West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Simon Foster opened the Midlands Fraud Forum annual conference at Millennium Point in Birmingham.
The event brought together people from the public and private sectors to discuss key issues of concern surrounding all things fraud.
The conference was an important opportunity for the PCC to highlight how online and in-person fraud now accounts for around 40 per cent of all crime. The PCC explained how fraud is the crime that people are most likely to become a victim of, whilst emphasising the importance of partners working together to prevent and tackle the scourge of fraud.
The PCC is committed to holding West Midlands Police to account to ensure it takes all necessary action to prevent and tackle fraud in the region. In January, the PCC launched the first ever police force-wide public health approach to fraud. This month the PCC will also launch a consultation on his second Police and Crime Plan.
The PCC said: “Fraud has a devastating impact on individual victims, businesses and the economy. Fraud is a crime we need to get a grip on, but we are not always working together locally, regionally or nationally as effectively and efficiently as we need to.
“Fraud needs to be prevention focused. It has been said for many years now that we cannot arrest our way out of this problem. That remains true.
“However, in the West Midlands we are taking ownership of what we need to do and have signed partners up to a singular strategic plan and approach to prevent and tackle fraud as a region.
“We are taking the initiative and showing what can be achieved when local leaders drive change.
“It will be my intention to ensure that the importance of us all working together, collectively and collaboratively, to do what it takes to prevent and tackle fraud, is appropriately reflected in my new West Midlands Police and Crime Plan 2024-2029.”
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