§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many people were found guilty of credit card fraud in each of the past 10 years; [27370]
(2) what the cost was of credit card fraud in each of the past 10 years. [27371]
§ Mr. Keith BradleyThe Home Office Court Proceedings database is unable to distinguish offences of credit card fraud from other types of fraud as the circumstances of individual offences are not collected centrally.
The following table shows the number of persons found guilty or cautioned for all offences of 'other fraud' (as distinct from fraud by a company director or false accounting) for the years 1991 to 2000:
Persons found guilty or cautioned for 'other fraud' in England and Wales, 1991 to 2000 Number 1991 22,775 1992 23,429 1993 21,178 1994 21,035 1995 19,807 1996 19,394 1997 19,442 1998 21,760 1999 22,191 2000 20,904 Information on the cost of credit card fraud is not collated by the Home Office. However, the Association of Payment Clearing Services has estimated the cost of reported losses due to credit card fraud over the last five years as:
£ million 1996 97.1 1997 122.0 1998 135.0 1999 188.4 2000 292.6 Source:
APACS Fraud in Focus 2001