Recorded crime rockets past 7m incidents a year for first time, amid huge surge in fraud and robbery

The number of crimes recorded by the police has soared past seven million a year for the first time.

Official figures showed an eight per cent jump in recorded crime in the year to June, hitting 7,084,375 incidents in England and Wales.

It was the first time the total surpassed seven million since modern crime recording practices began at the turn of the century, data from the Office for National Statistics showed.

The surge was largely down to a massive 41 per cent leap in reported fraud, to 1.8million offences.

The increase corresponded with the launch of a new service, Report Fraud, in December last year which allows the public to log cyber crime or fraud with City of London Police, which has national responsibilities in relation to financial crime.

The total included a 79 per cent increase to 1.02million in the number of frauds reported to the new service by UK Finance, the banking and financial services body. 

The surge indicates just how poorly fraud was being recorded under the previous system, Action Fraud, which was repeatedly criticised as ‘not fit for purpose’ by MPs leading it to be dubbed ‘Inaction Fraud’.

A separate measure of crime - the Crime Survey of England and Wales - also showed a surge in fraud.

The survey, which aims to estimate total crime levels including offences which are not reported to police, said there were 4.5million fraud incidents in the year, up 11 per cent.

It said the increase was due to a 13 per cent jump in bank and credit account fraud to 2.8million.

The ONS data shows how the number of ‘real-world’ crimes is continuing to fall as criminals go online.

Police recorded 5.2million crimes in the year excluding fraud and ‘computer misuse’ offences, down one per cent in a year.

However, robbery was one category of crime to witness a surge, with a 10 per cent increase year-on-year to its highest level since before the pandemic.

Police forces in England and Wales recorded 88,282 robberies in the year to June, up from 80,469 in the previous 12 months.

The surge was down to a sharp rise in robberies of businesses, which jumped 67 per cent year-on-year to just over 31,000 – the highest on record.

Robbery of personal property, however, dipped seven per cent to just over 57,000 incidents.

The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) said the rise in robbery may reflect increasing violence used by shoplifters, which is leading to a shift in the way the crime is recorded by forces.

Recorded shoplifting fell two per cent to 519,516 from a near-peak the previous year. 

An ACS spokesman said: 'The reason for the marked increase in robberies is likely due to a change in the way that some offences are now recorded as robberies that previously would have been counted as shoplifting offences.'

ACS chief executive Ed Woodall said: 'We are extremely concerned about the changing nature of theft against retailers.

'Offenders are becoming more confident, more brazen, and ultimately more violent in their crimes, threatening retailers and shopworkers to get away with stolen goods.'

He added: 'The Crime and Policing Act marked a big step forward in ensuring that the police treat shop theft more seriously, but many of the key measures from the Act such as the scrapping of the £200 threshold for investigating thefts, and the separate offence for attacking a shopworker are still not in place.

'The Government must act as soon as possible to show that it backs the hardworking people running and working in our nation’s local shops.'