We have always been, rightly, sceptical about the various propaganda claims about the annual figures for the financial value of alleged "identity theft / fraud" in the UK.

These were abused by the previous Labour government in their farcical attempts to "justify" their repressive, mandatory, centralised biometric database National Identity Register scheme (which, as planned, would have been useless against online web or phone based frauds).

See previous Spy Blog articles:

The National Fraud Authority is "an executive agency of the Attorney General's Office":

Why exactly does the Attorney General require any "executive agencies" whatsoever ?

This Labour government Quango has come out with this highly controversial, misleading and unsubstantiated claim that:

Identity fraud costs UK £2.7billion every year 18 October 2010 New figures from the National Fraud Authority [NFA] estimate that every year in the UK identity fraud costs more than £2.7billion and affects over 1.8million people. [18 October 2010] [...] Notes to Editors [...] 7. £2.7billion cost. Source: NFA. £1.9bn is estimated to be direct losses and £0.8bn is indirect losses, that is costs incurred by organisations preventing, detecting and investigating ID fraud as well as costs incurred by individuals trying to resolve instances of ID theft. This figure does not include the cost to the UK resulting from newly created fictitious identities or from corporate ID fraud

.

[...]

That generalised assertion is the sum total of their "evidence" !

Note that there is not even the discredited breakdown of guesstimate figures into categories such as "missing trader intra-community" (MITC) fraud" or "telecommunication" or "money laundering" or "insurrance fraud" which were abused in precious Government headline figures for "the annual cost of "identity fraud / theft" in the UK.

if you were to actually believe this "2.7 billion pounds a year" figure, then you should be asking why the precious Labour government and current Coalition one, have utterly failed in their anti-fraud policies, despite unprecedented national and international financial snooping powers.

If this "2.7 Billion per year" figure is true, then why is it over twice the £1.3 billion a year figure trumpeted by the Homer Office in 2005, only 5 years ago ?

The NFA has been existence for 6 years, so it has therefore totally failed in its mission to reduce or prevent "identity fraud". Surely such an ineffective publicly funded organisation should be a prime candidate for the the planned "bonfire of the quangos" ?

We will be contacting

For more information please contact:

sarah.garrett@attorneygeneral.gsi.gov.uk

020 3356 1034

and "Dr Bernard Herdan, Chief Executive, National Fraud Authority" who

has been ... Chief Executive at the Driving Standards Agency, Criminal Records Bureau and UK Passport Service.

(i.e. three of the worst "database state" offenders under the precious Labour government !)

to see if they can justify their controversial claims with any hard evidence.



Also on the Executive board of the NFA is one of the architects of the National Identity Register scheme

Stephen Harrison

Director of Enforcement [...] Since 1993, Stephen worked in a number of roles in the Home Office including the redesign of the organisation structure and programme governance for security planning for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Director of Policy at the Identity and Passport Service, delivering IT-enabled business improvements in the criminal justice system and three years as Private Secretary to the Home Secretary covering criminal policy and the prison and probation services.

Back in 2003, Stephen Harrison was, Head, Identity Card Policy Unit at the Home Office - he infamously could not, or would not, give an estimate of the cost of his scheme, not even to the nearest billion pounds, when giving evidence to the Home Affairs Committee.

