Convictions in England and Wales secured under the Fraud Act 2006 have fallen to their lowest level since 2007.

However, financial investment fraud recorded by Action Fraud has increased by 48% on average year-on-year since 2016.

In 2019 3.71m incidents of fraud occurred in England and Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics, but only one in five of these cases (743,380) were reported to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). Of these, just 5,234 convictions were secured under the Fraud Act 2006, amounting to one in 142 cases reported to the authorities.

A freedom of information report from wealth manager Quilter has found that despite fraud carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a fine, in 2020 the average custodial sentence secured under the Act was just under 20 months and the average fine was £463.

According to the wealth manager fraud convictions have fallen by 10% on average year-on-year since 2011 to reach levels not seen since the Act was first introduced. 

The wealth manager expressed concern that despite the rising number of investment frauds reported, many fraudster may not be being prosecuted and/or convicted due to the complexity and expense of investigating fraud.

Debbie Barton, financial crime prevention expert at Quilter, called on the Government to carry out a review of the UK’s fraud landscape in order to tackle investment scams.

She said: “The surging fraud numbers and falling convictions should send alarm bells ringing in the government. What we need is a holistic review of the UK’s fraud landscape to consider why so many fraudsters are slipping through the net, and to consider how authorities can send a strong message that they intend to get a grip on fraud once and for all.

“A good start to protect the public would be for the government to include further fraud typologies in the Online Safety Bill so that technology companies have a legal duty to tackle harm caused on their sites, and have to take up the slack in monitoring the online world for scams.”