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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: FOI-824-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 5th September 2023 as follows:
I would like to know – in the following years – how many “Financially Motivated Sexual Extortion” crimes have been reported:
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
I would also like to know what the outcome was for each instance.
I would also like to know the age of the victim at the time of the alleged crime.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. Searches were conducted for all offences, recorded during the period 1st January 2018 to 5th September 2023, where the primary offence is 35 ‘Blackmail’ or the primary and included offence is 008/71 ‘Disclose or threats to disclose private sexual photographs/film with intent to cause distress’ or 088/10 ‘Voyeurism’. This search produced a total of 1526 records and, in order to first determine that they relate to ‘sextortion’, and then to ascertain the further information, it would be necessary to review each and every offence on an individual basis. At 4 minutes per record this equates to in excess of 101 hours of work and would exceed the fees limit (£450) as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with s12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice in relation to this request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and in relation to refining your request; however, due to the amount of records which would need to be examined, I am unable to suggest a way to pare down your request into one which could be managed within the fees limit unless you were to reduce the time period required to, say, one year; however, please note that this may still exceed the fees limit if the number of records in a year is too great.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB