Overall crime down but figures show six-fold increase in advance fee fraud

However, despite no significant change in fraud overall, there was a 549 per cent increase in advance fee fraud (from 60,000 to 391,000 offences) compared with the year ending March 2020.

Advance fee fraud offences typically include scams where victims transferred funds to fraudsters for postal deliveries.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said post-pandemic trends were starting to emerge, with some crime types are returning to their pre-pandemic levels, while others may have been affected by changes in people’s behaviour during the lockdown and the subsequent lifting of social restrictions.

Overall, fraud has returned to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, with no significant change. The ONS suggests previous increases in fraud may have been specific to the coronavirus pandemic period, rather than a sustained change in trends

Bank and credit account fraud decreased by 14 per cent to 2.1 million offences.

According to CSEW estimates for the year ending March 2023, people aged 16 years and over experienced 8.7 million offences, down 15 per cent from 10.2 million for the year ending March 2020.

Overall theft decreased by 20 per cent. The largest reduction was seen in theft from the person (33 per cent), but falls were also seen in ‘other theft of personal property’ (31 per cent), domestic burglary (30 per cent) and vehicle-related theft (18 per cent).

Criminal damage also fell, down by 33 per cent.

The ONS said while police recorded crime does not tend to be a good indicator of general trends in crime, for some crime types it can give “more insight into lower-volume but higher-harm offences, including those that the survey does not cover or capture well”.

“For such crimes, there have generally been increases in the past year, although they remain below pre-coronavirus pandemic levels,” it added.

The ONS also suggested that improvements to recording processes and practices by the police, expansions of the recorded crime collection to include new offences, variations in police activity, more victims reporting crime, and genuine increases in some types of crime, have each made “substantial contributions to rises in recorded crime over recent years”.

Police recorded robbery offences were 17 per cent lower than the year ending March 2020, however, there was a 13 per cent increase compared with the year ending March 2022

Although police recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments (excluding figures from Devon and Cornwall Police) fell by seven per cent to 50,489 offences compared with pre-pandemic levels (54,293 offences), there has been a five per cent increase since the year ending March 2022 (48,204 offences).

The number of homicides decreased by 16 per cent to 602 offences compared with the year ending March 2020 (720 offences) and by 14 per cent since the year ending March 2022 (697 offences).

However, the ONS said because homicide is a “relatively low-volume offence” the numbers will fluctuate.

While the number of offences involving firearms (excluding Devon and Cornwall Police) was down by two per cent to 6,365 compared with the year ending March 2020 (6,511 offences), this was a 13 per cent rise compared with the year ending March 2022 (5,639 offences).

The ONS said this rise was largely attributed to an increase in offences involving imitation firearms, which rose 19 per cent since the year ending March 2022, and was the most prevalent principal weapon used in these offences in the past year.

Sexual offences rose by 20 per cent to 195,315 offences compared with the pre-coronavirus pandemic year (163,358).

The ONS said these figures may reflect several factors, including the impact of high-profile cases and campaigns on victims’ willingness to report both recent and historical incidents.