Fraud has been a “Cinderella crime” for too long and must be taken far more seriously by police to stop criminals plundering the wealth of law-abiding citizens, one of the country’s top law enforcers said today.

Graeme Biggar, the head of the National Economic Crime Centre, said that fraud was “not getting the attention it deserves” despite being one of the most commonly committed offences.

He said that a “step change” was needed and that police and the National Crime Agency had “got a lot more to do” to tackle the fraudsters properly.

He added that a major expansion was also needed in the number of specialist financial investigators employed by forces to track down illicit money and that law enforcers should “supercharge” the use of unexplained wealth orders.

Mr Biggar’s comments were made to the Evening Standard in his first interview since his appointment as director general of the National Economic Crime Centre.

It is based at the National Crime Agency and co-ordinates the work of police and other agencies against crimes including money laundering, fraud and corruption.

Mr Biggar said that although progress was being made with four unexplained wealth orders issued and account freezing orders totalling £220 million imposed on 220 individuals suspected of having illicit funds, much more needed to be done to tackle economic crime.

He said this would require a “cultural shift” as law enforcers focused more on removing assets from offenders — including major organised crime families who have previously dodged justice — to disrupt their activities and reduce the harm inflicted on the public.

“We need to go after the money more,” Mr Biggar told the Standard.

“Fraud particularly we’ve got a lot more to do. It has been a bit of a Cinderella crime that we all collectively as a country and society need to take more seriously.

"It’s the second most reported crime in the country and it’s not getting the attention it deserves.”

Mr Biggar said that part of solving this issue would be to ensure that the Government’s focus on increasing police numbers was matched by a boost to the number of financial investigators capable of tracking down illicit money and identifying economic crime.

An estimated 3.8 million fraud offences were committed during the year to the end of March, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

This was up 17 per cent on the previous 12 months. Fraud recorded by police was also up by nine per cent in the same period.

The estimated annual cost is £190 billion across the UK. The most common offences are bank and credit account fraud.