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The New £250m Anti‑Fraud Strategy
As we have seen recently, the major new anti‑fraud strategy focused on disrupting fraud networks, strengthening resilience, and enhancing enforcement. A central feature is the Online Crime Centre, a cross‑agency initiative uniting government, police, intelligence agencies, banks, telecoms providers and tech platforms to tackle high volume online fraud at scale.
The strategy is built around three pillars:
Disrupt – blocking criminal tools and infrastructure, including fraudulent websites, accounts, and phone numbers.
Safeguard – improving public and business resilience through early intervention and intelligence‑sharing.
Respond – expanding enforcement through new civil powers, modernised disclosure, and more judge‑led trials for complex fraud cases. [pinsentmasons.com]
What the experts say:
Tom Stocker, Corporate Crime expert at Pinsent Masons, contends the importance of rigorous implementation: “The detail will matter in ensuring the government makes good on its renewed commitment to tackle economic crime, but there is clear political will to improve the UK's response to fraud.”
With fraud affecting as many as one quarter of UK businesses, this new strategy is a significant step towards making the UK a harder environment for criminals and strengthening protections for victims.
The UK Home Office announces a £250 million investment over three years to tackle the UK's biggest crime type
> Online Crime Centre launching April 2026 – a new public-private 'nerve centre' bringing together banks, tech firms, police and intelligence agencies
> Sponsoring the Global Fraud Summit to raise awareness and lead the international response
> Collaborate with telecoms, online and financial services sectors to deliver interventions that address their vulnerability to criminal exploitation
Three priorities:
1. Disrupt (pages 14-31): disrupting the tools, methods, systems and vulnerabilities exploited by criminals
2. Safeguard (pages 32-41): strengthen resilience so fraud can be detected and repelled before harm occurs.
3. Respond (pages 42-53): brings together reporting, victim support, reimbursement, criminal and civil justice
A new Fraud Ministerial Accountability Group which will sit alongside the Joint Fraud Taskforce beneath the Economic Crime Strategic Board
New Report Fraud service now live – replacing Action Fraud
Fraud Victims Charter coming Q2 2027 setting minimum standards of care
Does this have potential to make a meaningful difference?
Will success will depend on sustained delivery, cross‑sector cooperation, and improved data use?
UK Launches New Online Crime Squad to Combat Fraud
“Fraudsters are exploiting new technology, industrialising their operations and targeting the British public at scale,” said Fraud Minister Sir David Hanson.
Dubbed the “Online Crime Centre” and set to launch operations next month, it will bring together government, police, intelligence agencies, banks, mobile networks, and major tech firms for coordinated action against fraud.
Backed by over £30 million in funding, the centre aims to identify the accounts, websites, and phone numbers that organised crime groups rely on and shut them down at scale by blocking scam texts, removing scam social media accounts, and freezing criminal accounts.
City of London Police Commissioner and National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Cyber and Economic Crime, asserts they are transforming the national policing response to fraud and cyber crime with an inspection regime, working with His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) ensuring every police force is making fraud a priority, but it needs the wider industry collaboration set out in this new strategy to stop criminals
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-disruption-unit-launched-in-crackdown-on-fraud
Two new reports underpin the Fraud Strategy 2026-2029
Economic & Social Cost of Fraud 2023–24 estimates a £14.4bn annual impact.
National Assessment Centre Fraud Assessment 2025 highlights the surge in online, cross‑border, AI‑enabled fraud.
Built on three pillars — Disrupt, Safeguard, Respond — the UK is accelerating its fraud‑fighting infrastructure, including:
£31m Online Crime Centre launching April 2026, unifying intelligence, law enforcement and industry to dismantle criminal networks.
Greater action against abuse of telecoms, online platforms and financial systems.
Enhanced resilience for individuals and businesses through targeted guidance and proactive policing.
Stronger victim support and improved investigative and legal powers.
This strategy reflects a long‑overdue reset: a modernised, tech‑driven, partnership‑focused approach to reducing harm and restoring confidence.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) today launched new guidance, stating for the first time that if a corporate self-reports suspected wrongdoing and co-operates fully with investigators, it can expect to be invited to negotiate a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) rather than face prosecution, unless exceptional circumstances apply.
At a legal conference in London, SFO Director Nick Ephgrave introduced new corporate co-operation guidance that will make it simpler for corporates to report suspected wrongdoing by a direct route to the SFO’s Intelligence Division via a secure reporting portal.
The guidance also provides greater clarity on what the SFO views as ‘genuine co-operation’, including preservation of digital and hard copy material, presenting the facts on suspected criminal conduct and early engagement with the SFO on any internal investigation. The guidance also gives examples of what the SFO views as uncooperative conduct, including attempts to “forum shop” by unreasonably reporting offending to another jurisdiction for strategic reasons and attempts to minimise or obfuscate the involvement of individuals.
In return, a self-reporting company can expect the SFO to:
Nick Ephgrave QPM, Director of the Serious Fraud Office, said:
We are determined to lead the fight against serious and complex fraud, bribery and corruption at home and side by side with international partners. Our new guidance sets out how corporates can report suspected criminality to us and what we expect from cooperating corporates.
If you have knowledge of wrongdoing, the gamble of keeping this to yourself has never been riskier.
The new guidance comes amidst a push by the SFO to optimise its operating environment to tackle top-tier criminality, including by advancing plans to incentivise whistleblowers, supporting reform of outdated disclosure practice, trialling new technology and setting up a taskforce to tackle international bribery and corruption with key partners.
https://www.wired-gov.net/wg/news.nsf/articles/SFO+sets+out+route+for+businesses+to+avoid+prosecution+24042025130500
A fraudster who swindled more that £77,000 from a primary school has been told she has to pay back all of her ill-gotten gains.
Wendy Gill abused her position and 'betrayed' colleagues at a Midlands school to pocket the huge amount of cash over six years.
Now, she has to sell her home in order to raise the funds and hand all the money back.
Recorder Samuel Skinner ordered she pay back the entire amount by July 13 during a proceeds of crime act hearing.
He said: "The benefit figure is £77,395 and the available assets are the same."
Gill admitted fraud by abuse of position and was locked up for two years and one month last year.
Government proposals to curb multibillion-pound benefit fraud involve “tools of an Orwellian surveillance state” and could put people through “absolute hell”, MPs have warned.
The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill seeks to allow the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to recover money directly from fraudsters’ bank accounts and have the power to obtain bank statements from people they believe have enough cash to pay back welfare debts, but are refusing to do so.
Courts could also suspend fraudsters’ driving licences following an application by the DWP, if they owe welfare debts of more than £1,000 and have ignored repeated requests to pay it back.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/national/24907279.mps-raise-concerns-orwellian-powers-crack-benefit-fraud/?ref=twtrec
What are the 5 key things you need to know?
Our previous blog on this topic (found here: Fraud: ‘failure to prevent fraud' offence - KPMG UK) set out the background to the new ‘failure to prevent fraud’ offence contained in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (“ECCTA”). As a one-line recap, this is where an organisation can be prosecuted under the ECCTA (potentially resulting in a fine) if a fraud is committed by an associated person, for the organisation’s benefit, and the organisation did not have ‘reasonable procedures’ in place to prevent the fraud.
https://kpmg.com/uk/en/home/insights/2024/11/government-guidance-for-failure-to-prevent-fraud-offence.html
The much-anticipated new corporate criminal offence of failure to prevent fraud was introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.
Its commencement was conditional on the government publishing guidance and that was issued on November 6 2024, and a regulation was laid before parliament on the same date that will make the offence effective from September 2025.
https://www.ftadviser.com/financial-fraud/2024/11/13/the-net-has-drastically-widened-for-corporate-criminal-liability/
Big businesses have nine months to implement fraud prevention procedures, with the Serious Fraud Office director warning that “time is now running short for corporations to get their house in order”.
Today, the Home Office published its guidelines on the offence of failure to prevent fraud.
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