The most recent Crime Survey of England and Wales estimated that there were 3.8 million incidents of fraud between March 2018 to March 2019, an increase of 17% from the previous year. Why, then, did prosecutions for white-collar crime fall to a five-year low, according to a recent study by Thomson Reuters? The answer is likely to lie predominantly with the shrinking resources of investigating authorities, and the increasing sophistication of perpetrators. Things are unlikely to change in the near future. Though uncertain, whatever version of Brexit we end up with is likely to reduce – or at least make more difficult – cooperation across Europe in criminal matters. Read more
