Huge increases in fraud and computer misuse are driving rising crime levels.
While crimes like theft and burglary dropped due to lockdown, scams around postal deliveries and computer hacking pushed up overall rates.
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show crime levels in the year to September 2021 were still being impacted by the pandemic and government restrictions.
Overall, there was a 14% increase in total crime compared to pre-pandemic, based on the results of the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW), driven by a 47% increase in fraud and computer misuse.
However, without those fraud and computer misuse crimes, levels fell by 14%, largely driven by an 18% decrease in theft offences.
According to TCSEW estimates, adults aged 18 years and over experienced 12.9 million offences in the year ending September 2021, including fraud and computer misuse.
The crime survey is seen as a better estimate of overall crime, as it asks people about all the incidents they may have experienced in the past year, not just the ones they reported to the police.
One in five people (22.1%) reported being the victim of a crime in the year to September 2021, according to the TCSEW.
Within that one in 11 people said they had been the victim of fraud (8.9%) and one in 28 (3.6%) had been the victim of computer misuse.
Estimates from the TCSEW showed there were 5.1 million fraud offences in the year ending September 2021, a 36% increase compared with the year ending September 2019.
This included large increases in advance fee fraud, consumer and retail fraud, and other fraud, with the ONS saying the increase may indicate fraudsters taking advantage of behaviour changes related to the pandemic, such as increased online shopping and increased savings.
For example, advance fee fraud offences included scams where victims transferred funds to fraudsters for postal deliveries; other fraud included investment opportunity scams.
Of those fraud incidents last year, 31% involved no loss, 43% saw the loss fully reimbursed, while a minority (26%) resulted in loss of money or property, with no or only partial reimbursement.
There were 1.9 million computer misuse offences in the year ending September 2021, according to the TCSEW, an 89% increase compared with the year ending September 2019.
This was largely driven by a 161% increase in Unauthorised access to personal information (including hacking) offences. This included victims’ details being compromised via large-scale data breaches, and victims’ email or social media accounts being compromised.
