Impressive year for unique police unit

The Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU) – the special police unit that tackles cheque and card fraud criminals – was responsible for £107 million in estimated fraud savings in 2007, according to new figures. This compares with savings of £130 million achieved in the five years following the Unit’s launch in 2002.

The DCPCU is fully sponsored by the banking industry through APACS and has an ongoing brief to help stamp out organised card and cheque fraud across the UK. It is a unique body that comprises officers from the Metropolitan and City of London police forces who work alongside banking industry fraud investigators.

This huge boost in annual performance reflects a significant increase in the numbers of counterfeit cards and card details recovered by the Unit. Their work disrupted 421 organised crime networks, leading to the recovery of:

103,000 compromised card details;
16,500 counterfeit cards; and
7,000 fraudulent cheques

Perhaps most importantly, the Unit’s work led to a very high rate of conviction - 94 per cent - for the perpetrators of these frauds.

Detective Chief Inspector John Folan, who heads up the Unit, said: “Our ongoing work with the banking industry and other police forces throughout the UK is clearly having a positive effect. The successes of the past year are a clear message to the organised criminal gangs in the UK that we will continue to target them and frustrate their fraudulent activity.”

Katy Worobec, head of fraud control at APACS said: “Fighting fraud is a shared responsibility and our continued funding of the DCPCU is another clear indication of the banks’ ongoing commitment to tackle card crime. The Unit’s achievements are testament to how a public/private partnership can work together, clearly demonstrating the worth of this unique collaboration.”