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White collar crime prosecutions increase for first time in five years

The number of prosecutions for white collar crime increased to 9,401 over the last year, law firm Pinsent Masons finds

THE number of prosecutions for white collar crime increased to 9,401 over the last year, representing the first increase in five years, according to law firm Pinsent Masons.

The increase over the last year is relatively small and the figure remains significantly lower than the number of prosecutions five years ago.

white collar crime

Cyber-crime prosecutions continued to rise, with 61 recorded in 2015, up from 45 in 2014, an increase of 36%.

Barry Vitou, partner and head of global corporate crime at Pinsent Masons said: “Cyber-crime is a fast-growing threat and should remain a focus. The online capabilities of fraudsters are increasing and evolving all the time.

In the last year, 617,618 fraud offences were recorded in England and Wales, up 4% on the previous year. Of these, 224,683 offences were recorded via Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber-crime reporting centre, and 392,936 via Financial Fraud Action UK and Cifas, fraud prevention services.

Organisations involved with tackling white collar crime saw a number of high-profile successes over the last year, including the SFO’s first conviction of an individual for the manipulation of LIBOR.

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