To catch a thief

The new UK Fraud Bill promises to create a new fraud offence and speed up notoriously lengthy trials. As Peter Madigan discovers, however, the powers outlined in the new Bill may be undone by a lack of manpower on the front line

Fraud is a major problem for UK firms. In town and cities up and down the country, organised criminals and opportunist employees are defrauding individuals and businesses of billions of pounds a year. Financial services firms, concerned about increases in everything from credit card fraud to employee fraud cases, are increasingly anxious about this 'growth industry'. Although no definitive figure exists as to the total cost of fraud to the country, estimates range from a government figure of £16