Crime - Massive increase in UK fraud.
Fraud in the UK is up by 29%, according to the latest crime statistics released by the Home Office. In figures published for the year ending September 1999, fraud and forgery jumped by almost a third, overtaking the overall increase in reported crime of only 2.2%. The Home Office report says the massive figure was reached after excluding the effect of new counting rules which allow for the recording of unreported cheque and credit card fraud discovered by police in subsequent investigations. Statistics under a new set of counting rules show that there were 241,813 fraud and forgery crimes for the year ending September 1998, which saw a huge jump to 312,151 by September 1999. This represents an overall increase of more than 70,000 offences.