I’ve never liked the term “white collar criminal” for people who commit frauds and other crimes indulged in by bankers and similarly wealthy types.

We don't describe, say, burglars as “blue collar criminals”. They’re just criminals. By adding the phrase “white collar” it seems to imply that it’s not so bad if the boss is doing it.

The trouble is that boss-crime or manager-crime can be devilishly difficult and expensive to investigate, as the recent HBOS fraud trial demonstrates.

Six people were jailed over the affair, which targeted small business customers and led HBOS’s now owner Lloyds to write off £245m.

Judge Beddoe scolded “utterly corrupt senior bank manager” Lynden Scourfield for letting “rapaciously greedy people get their hands on vast amounts of bank money and their tentacles into ordinary and honest businesses”.

For Thames Valley Police the convictions and sentences ranging from three-and-a-half to 15 years in prison represent an important result. But it came at quite a price. Some £7m in total.

Anthony Stansfeld, the Police & Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley, had said this to say about it: “The cost in time and money for a police force to take on a major fraud investigation is considerable and a judgement has to be made whether the £7m spent on this case, and police officer time, could have been better spent in pursuing other crimes, such as child sexual abuse, and the multitude of lower scale frauds perpetrated against smaller companies and the elderly.

“If Thames Valley Police take on further cases of a similar nature it will again tie up a large number of police officers and staff. Yet if it is not prosecuted no one will be brought to justice. I have an uncomfortable feeling that other police forces are in similar positions. If a bank is physically raided then a huge police effort will go into bringing the bank robbers to justice. If it is raided by its own staff it may well be ignored.”

A fair point. He went on to note that the entire annual budget for the Serious Fraud Office is just £44m. That of the City of London Police, which also handles "economic crime", is rather less than that.

And yet the overall cost of losses from fraud and cyber crime is put at a staggering £200bn.

If you spend any time at all thinking about those figures you start to see why Mr Stansfeld is saying “Houston, we have a problem”. If you’re clever, and dishonest enough, you will be aware that your chances of being caught, let alone convicted, are small. Particularly if you keep your aims modest and steer clear of prostitutes and exotic locales, which is what Scourfield and his pals failed to do.

Clearly there is a need for greater resources, but how to find them when resources are strained wherever you look? Stansfeld calls for an agreed upon policy so that police forces can recoup costs from central government when the SFO doesn’t feel able to take a case on.

Which is probably not going to happen. An alternative, he suggests, is through a fine or costs imposed on the auditors, the bank and the offenders involved.

That might be more palatable to ministers. But what if the offenders don’t have any money (other than that which has been obtained fraudulently)? As for the banks, and auditors, you might well have to prove negligence before fining them. Which itself can be difficult and expensive to do. “Even if you do everything you should do a skilled and determined fraudster will still find a way,” is what they will tell you.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled – leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: “Europe’s largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rue’s contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybe’s revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airline’s estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

How, then, to satisfy people like Mr Stansfeld, who wants fraud investigated but rightly points out the apalling cost of doing so. Here’s an idea: How about imposing a levy on audit fees for companies above a certain size, the money from which could then be routed towards fraud busting agencies that pick up the pieces when audits fail. As they too frequently do.

I realise the howls of outrage at this proposal emanating from the City could probably heard at Heathrow Airport, even over the noise of the construction of the new runway.