“The director of the National Economic Crime Centre, said while the maximum sentence for fraud is currently 10 years, the average sentence is around two years and even in the most serious cases is still only four years. "We support longer sentences for the frauds that are causing the highest harm," he told the BBC.

"In particular we're keen that the emotional impact of fraud is taken into consideration."

In the year to March 2023 the Home Office recorded 1.25 million cases of fraud. Of those cases around 4% were investigated with just over 4,000 ending up in court.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67149919

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i86Hc6AAVt4

“Minutes after being selected, Follows told the local party that he would “work to ensure that the Portillo moment in the public mindset will become the Hunt moment.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/21/jeremy-hunt-set-to-quit-as-mp-in-fear-of-a-portillo-moment

“One person who might consider himself lucky to avoid spending time in the nick is the former Formula 1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone, who last week pleaded guilty to a £400m tax fraud. In return, he was given a 17 month suspended sentence. I may be missing something, but this sounds quite the deal. One that could almost tempt the law-abiding into a life of white collar crime. For it suggests, on a pro rata basis, that for every £785,000 of any fraud you can only expect a one-day suspended sentence. Which doesn’t sound like a great deterrent. Hell, I’d almost be tempted to go big and double up for a £1.5m fraud and risk a two-day sentence. It would sort my pension worries out at a stroke. So if any readers have any too-good-to-be-true Ponzi schemes they need help running, give me a shout. I’m all ears.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/20/digested-week-space-for-one-more-in-tories-brave-new-world-after-a-fuss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR8gsz60Np8

“There is a narrative building around the party of government, that all shocks are essentially external, and we should all pull together to deal with them as best we can, and Leadsom reflected that. It’s understandable; when the consequences of 13 years of increasingly chaotic decisions are all landing at once, plausible defence lines are few. Tactically, they need to keep the conversation as broad as possible, at the level of “isn’t the world terrible?” But this is the party of law and order – and it can’t divert our attention for ever from examining its actual record in the crucial area of law and order.

It is some record, and not in a good way: no grip, no plan, no direction. Functionally speaking, they’re basically anarchists.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gtPieijRa8

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/19/law-and-order-tory-criminal-ministers-crime-marks-and-spencer

From Monday there will be a lot more stories about fraud - and how to protect yourself - right across BBC as part of our Be Scam Safe week. You can find out more at bbc.co.uk/bescamsafe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ

“It began the way many discoveries do — a tickling of curiosity in the back of someone’s mind.”