As an expert who has worked at the coalface of fraud investigations for more than a decade before moving to HMRC as a regional counter fraud lead, Matthew Field is well versed in the enormous challenges that fraud presents to the UK economy.

It is the most commonly experienced crime in the UK, accounting for 41% of all crime against individuals in England and Wales, yet just 1% of police personnel are dedicated to tackling it. The National Crime Agency’s Annual Fraud Indicator estimated that annual fraud in the UK accounts for losses of £190bn. Bearing in mind low levels of reporting, experts fear the true cost of fraud is much, much higher.

Field took the helm at the Fraud Advisory Panel (FAP) in April. In May, the government’s hotly anticipated Fraud Strategy was published, which according to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, marked “a fundamental shift” in the government’s approach to tackling fraud. “This strategy sets out a plan to stop fraud at source and pursue those responsible wherever they are in the world,” Braverman said.

With a target to cut fraud by 10% by the end of the current parliament, the strategy includes banning cold calls on all financial products and outlawing so-called “SIM farms” used by criminals to send thousands of spam texts at once, as well as increasing the role of the intelligence community in disrupting overseas criminals. 

Fair to say, the strategy met with a mixed response, with expert critics claiming it is too weak to tackle soaring crime and prompting many to call for stronger regulation of online platforms to tackle criminality. 

The FAP’s own response to the Fraud Strategy cut to the chase: “What has been suggested in both the economic crime plans and the fraud strategy is insufficient to tackle the international scourge that fraud has become.” It described the proposed increase of 400 investigative staff as a “decent start”. But just how many of the 3.7 million individual victims and unspecified number of business victims would be affected by the increase remains an open question, the FAP’s response said, “as does the types of fraud being targeted and prioritised”.

“Does the government commitment really reflect how serious a threat fraud is? It’s a step in the right direction but there’s more that needs to be done,” Field adds.

While overt criticism of the government’s approach to tackling the crime isn’t on Field’s to-do list, he says FAP’s priority under his leadership remains to find ways to mitigate and prevent fraud. “My motivation for moving here was to make a difference. We have a huge amount of experience and expertise through our memberships and our trustees. We have the passion of that community and we are able to bring people together to really change it.”

FAP is chaired by Sir David Green, a former director of the Serious Fraud Office and director of the central fraud group at the Crown Prosecution Service. Trustees include industry heavyweights Rachel Sexton, Partner and Head of Financial Services Practice at EY, and Oliver Shaw, Detective Superintendent at the City of London Police and a member of the UK government’s Fraud Review team, with the FAP membership spanning law firms, academics, law enforcement experts and a wide range of businesses.

Field says collaboration is the panel’s secret weapon. “Fraud is growing, fraud is complex. But if we can work together, we are much better able to mitigate the risks. It’s always evolving so combining our knowledge is much more powerful.”

Its priority is to focus on those areas that aren’t necessarily getting the support they need. FAP’s year-long Love Business Hate Fraud campaign, which ended in June, focused on helping SMEs mitigate the risks of business fraud. It featured a social media campaign, a toolkit for business and a series of free online events to shine the spotlight on topical issues affecting businesses, including buying goods and services safely, staff fraud, cybercrime and managing the risks. 

According to a survey commissioned to support the launch of the campaign, 44% of SMEs and 49% of all businesses agreed that fraud was a major risk to growing their business over the next two years. FAP is also planning its eighth Charity Fraud Awareness Week in November. 

Looking ahead to next year, Field’s ambition is to engage with different audiences and the counter fraud experts of the future: “We want to go out to different sectors and use the experience and knowledge that we have to grow the counter fraud community. We’ll keep running networking events and campaigns and will be expanding them into new areas and new groups.”

Meanwhile, a revamped FAP website is due to launch later this year, allowing for greater engagement with members. “That’s going to be a huge step for us,” Field says. “It’s going to be a lot more interactive so we will be able to engage with our members a lot more, and get their steers and opinions. 

“The website will have different sections where we can target our messaging. It’s going to allow us to be much more real time. Our email system will be able to communicate straight away with our membership. That will be a huge change. Members now receive a two-page monthly fraud bulletin. We want it to be simple, to be slick and quick to navigate and to get those messages across as clearly as possible.” 

Given the constantly evolving nature of fraud, it’s important that the FAP evolves with that threat, Field says. “We will work with our membership partners to ask: ‘How is that threat changing and what programmes of activity can we deliver to mitigate those risks?’ We don’t necessarily give advice, but we want to enhance awareness, educate and collaborate. How can we make people more aware of fraud and all the harm that it causes – and how can we stop it?

“Fraud itself is the problem and we look to support people with their counter fraud culture, process and systems to help prevent them being affected.” 

• The Fraud Advisory Panel’s annual fraud conference will take place on 29 February 2024. 
• Charity Fraud Awareness Week will run from Monday 27 November 2023.