Ken Farrow and Steve Wilmott, who led the fraud squad for ten years, have said that the police service is wrong not to record cases of identity fraud as crimes

The Home Office is manipulating crime figures by instructing Action Fraud to dismiss as many as tens of thousands of legitimate cases, two former heads of fraud for the police have told The Times.

Ken Farrow and Steve Wilmott, who led the fraud squad between 1997 and 2008, said the police service exposed last month by an undercover investigation is wrongly failing to record cases of identity fraud as crimes.

The decision to dismiss these reports, which was made by the Home Office, means as many as 50,000 reported frauds every year are not included in official crime statistics and the criminals are not being pursued.

Mr Farrow told The Times: “If someone using a stolen identity applies for a credit card in that name…