the times | Saturday November 14 2020 2GM 15News
Last year The Times reported that
only one in 200 police officers was
assigned to fraud even though it ac-
counts for more than a third of all
crimes. Since then Concentrix, the
company operating Action Fraud call
centres, has recruited 90 new staff,
opened a new call centre in Newcastle
and encouraged people to file reports
online. Call centre waiting times fell
from 13 minutes in October last year to
one minute in April but rose to 11 min-utes in July and 15 minutes last month.
Banking sources say that the
National Fraud Intelligence Bureau,
which analyses the reports made to
Action Fraud, does not have the
resources to investigate fraud cases in
which less than £100,000 is lost.
Commander Clinton Blackburn,
national co-ordinator for economic
crime, said Action Fraud’s call operators
had prevented 225 suicides in the past
year by staying on the phone withcustomers lose £1.4bn to fraud
victims for up to four hours at a time. He
has asked the Home Office to provide
more money for tackling fraud and said:
“I’ve been a policeman for 28 years and
have never seen anything like it. We’ve
got a small amount of resources dealing
with a massive amount of crime.
“Faced with people whose lives are at
risk and with sexual abuse, knife crime,
counterterrorism, forces are having to
prioritise... risk to life is always going to
come first.”
Police forces investigate losses based
on local resource. In Durham 45 per
cent of total fraud cases dealt with in
the 2019-20 financial year resulted in
someone being taken to court or facing
legal action. That is more than in any
other area. In contrast Sussex Police
brought fraudsters to justice in only
4 per cent of cases, with the vast
majority resulting in “non-judicial
outcomes” or “no further action”,
according to Action Fraud.
UK Finance, which represents the
banking industry, said that the industry
was committed to defending customers
against fraud and that it welcomed the
prospect of new legislation on the issue
of reimbursing victims.
Action Fraud said: “Unlike many
contact centres, Action Fraud deals
with victims who are often emotionally
distressed or vulnerable, so call waiting
times can be longer.”
John Glen, economic secretary to the
Treasury, said in a debate on fraud last
week that the government was consid-
ering bringing in legislation that would
force banks to refund fraud victims.
Banks are wriggling out of their
commitments, leading article, page 37Alex Reid, 86, a retired
insurance risk assessor from
Surbiton, southwest London, lost
£15,000 in an investment scam in
July after coming across a
fraudulent investment website on
Google.
His local police force told him
that they were not equipped to
deal with fraud and he reported it
in a five-minute phone call to
Action Fraud.
“Nobody would discuss anything,
they just seemed to resent the fact
I was asking any questions,” he
said of Action Fraud. “They were
saying they had thousands of these
cases every day.”
Nationwide building society did
not refund his loss. It said that Mr
Reid was warned about the risk of
investment scams and failed to
check the Financial Conduct
Authority’s website for warnings of
cloned websites on Google.stupid you have been and how you
have to live with the consequences
of it... It’s like if you’re a rape
victim and you go to the police and
they say how much did you have to
drink and what did you think
would happen if you wore a short
skirt.”
The bank initially refunded her
half the money lost, then agreed to
refund the full amount at the start
of November after she wrote to its
leadership team.
Despite reporting the incident to
Action Fraud, she has received two
more phone calls from the same
female fraudster asking her to
secure her accounts.
HSBC said: “Helping protect our
customers from fraudsters is an
absolute priority for us. We deeply
sympathise with people who fall
victim to these criminals, and we
know how traumatic these
experiences can be.”A pilot scheme allowing families to visit
care homes by taking a test begins next
week amid a growing backlash from
distraught families who say they must
be reunited before their elderly rela-
tives “die of broken hearts”.
A month-long pilot will run in 20
care homes across Hampshire, Corn-
wall and Devon from Monday to assess
the feasibility of a wider programme
that could allow families to be reunited
in time for Christmas. The government
has promised to roll out wider testing of
care home visitors by Christmas.
Under the scheme each resident will
be allowed one person as their “key visi-
tor”, who can visit them indoors without
a screen after taking a Covid-19 test.
However, the plans have been dis-
missed as too little too late by many
families.
Campaigners want there to be a rapid
testing programme, similar to the one
pledged to get students home for
Christmas, set up for visitors.
“We don’t have time to wait another
month,” said Sharon Maycock-Prime,
54, from Staines, in Surrey, who has not
been able to hug her 86-year-old
mother, Sylvia, who suffers from de-
mentia, since July. “Why do they need a
trial? Some of us don’t have that time. If
they are doing it for students, why can’t
they do it for us?
“The last time I saw my mum [at a dis-
tance] I walked away with the sense that
she is forgetting who we are. She has
forgotten so much but she will under-
stand a hug, or a stroke of the hand. I’ve
cried so much. People are giving up liv-
ing because they are so lonely.”
Pandemic guidelines have deprived
many vulnerable residents of meaning-
ful contact with loved ones for the past
eight months. The enforced isolation
not only breaches the residents’ human
rights but may kill them quicker than
the virus, relatives have said.
Lynne Bentham, a former nurse, said
that her 91-year-old mother, ShirleyTests to reunite
elderly in care
with loved ones
Robinson, was begging to die having
been isolated from her family since
March. “She is being held against her
wish. She has capacity and wants to see
her family. If she can’t do that she wants
to die; she prays to die.”
Her mother became deaf during the
lockdown, she added, so depriving her
of touch was especially cruel. “She said
on one call, ‘I can’t hear you but if you
can hear me can you please help me to
die.’ We’re not asking for a lot, just for
one person per family to be tested so we
can see our mum. Surely that’s not so
hard? What they [the government] are
doing is inhumane.”
Government guidance says that care
homes can allow visits but should prior-
itise residents’ safety with measures
like PPE, window visits and screens.
Ms Bentham, 69, from Blackpool, has
written to Matt Hancock, the health
secretary, begging him to scrap the
“nonsensical” guidance. “Please show
mercy,” she wrote.
Anne Cowan said that since Februa-
ry her husband, who suffers from
chronic heart failure, had gone from
“blossoming” in his care home in Ely,
Cambridgeshire, to being “lonely, an-
gry, unrealistic and very unhappy. He
no longer trusts anyone and he is even
talking about suicide.”
She questioned why care home visi-
tors had to wait another month for a
pilot scheme. “A month, and no doubt
longer, is not time which many of our
care home residents have to get this
right,” she said.
Helen Whately, the minister for care,
said: “Visits are what makes life worth
living for many care home residents,
yet these have been few and far
between. Visits with a screen or window
are better than nothing, but they are too
confusing or impossible for people with
advanced dementia.” She said the gov-
ernment was “putting care home visi-
tors front of the queue as we bring more
tests on stream”.
Care home visits are a basic human right,
Janice Turner, page 35Lucy BannermanCouncils yet to receive cash
raised from lockdown fines
imperative that this money is urgently
disbursed to councils, as it should be.”
The English police force that had
issued the most fines was North York-
shire, with 1,151. The Metropolitan
police was next with 1,088 fines, fol-
lowed by Devon and Cornwall police,
which had issued 1,010.
Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire
county council, said: “[The money]
would be welcome, when we get it. If it’s
meant to have flowed to us by now, I’m
disappointed it hasn’t.”
The fines have been issued for offen-
ces including breaching restrictions on
movement, or being in a gathering of
more than two or six, depending on
what time of year they were issued.
The £373,330 came from 9,466 fixed
penalty notices, about half of all 18,
that had been issued by that date. The
other half remain unpaid.
So far 20,223 fines have been issued,
between March 27 and October 19.
Acro said the money had not yet gone
anywhere as it was still trying to locate
payment details of local authorities.Hundreds of thousands of pounds
collected from fines imposed under
coronavirus laws have failed to reach
local authorities, prompting criticism
from council leaders and MPs.
Legislation stated that money col-
lected in fixed penalty notices was sup-
posed to be given to local authorities.
Acro, the criminal records office, has
been processing the fines given by En-
glish and Welsh police forces. It said
that it had collected £373,330 from fixed
penalty notices until September 20. The
money remains in an Acro bank ac-
count, according to a freedom of infor-
mation release obtained by The Times.
Steve Baker, Conservative MP for
Wycombe, said: “This episode shows
just what a pickle we’re getting into try-
ing to enforce these massive incursions
into our freedom. Of course councils
are desperate for the money to help
feed children and help support busi-
nesses so livelihoods are not lost.
“Since we do have these fines, it’sFariha KarimNews
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLEIndukumar Patel
with Asha, his
granddaughter, and
Elaine Lomenzo
felt let down by
banks after fraud