Police relax policy on prosecuting bank fraud

Screen Shot 2016-06-13 at 20.18.12I made a complaint against the Economic Crime Unit at  City of London Police for their refusal to investigate my new evidence of HSBC appearing to produce forged statements to deny having added illegal charges. The police investigated themselves and needless to state my complaint was not upheld. They repeat once again that I must leave it to the FCA – as I have already written, the FCA tell me they do not prosecute fraud (they do) and that I should refer to the police.

I don’t intend to write about my complaint, it was procedural rather than in the expectation of success, but in their ruling the police have sent a very interesting document, which I’m not sure I should have, which includes the extract below. The “traditional method of investigating crime…tended to focus on a prosecution outcome”. The new model mentions “the need to refer, or work alongside, partner agencies [e.g. FCA] …..to consider alternative outcomes as an endgame [sic] for example, deciding that an investigation is best suited as a regulatory matter, no where [sic] on the new model is’ court’ or police action referred to as the only or preferred option.”

So, prosecuting fraud is no longer a police priority. And who decided this? Apparently, the College of Policing. The policy does not seem to be legislated or Treasury policy (although, of course, Osborne will have been involved). It is virtually a police decision to decriminalise fraud.

This might explain why so few bankers in the UK have been prosecuted for fraud. The police pass it on the regulators (and in my case, the regulators say go to the police). The regulators are funded by the banks.

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