FOI 30-2025 / Jan 2025 / Car scam
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 30-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 8th January 2025 as follows:
I have heard of a scam where scammers pose as potential buyers, visit a car in person, distract the seller and sabotage the car to ask for the car at a lower price. I have seen that Surrey Police have mentioned this as part of their April 2024 Newsletter:
Please may you provide me with:
1) Is the above type of scam something your force have seen reports of during 2024 (1st January 2024 - 31st December 2024)?
2) How many cases of this type of fraud were reported to your force, between:
- a) 1st January 2024 - 30th June 2024
- b) 1st July 2024 -31st December 2024
(if you are not able to provide figures between this window, please provide 1 year stats for the 2024 year, or 1 year and the date range they apply for)
3) Therefore, have you seen an increase/decrease in this type of fraud in the year 2024 compared to the previous year? (1st January 2023 - 31st December 2023 vs 1st January 2024 - 31st December 2024)?
4) How many cases of motor fraud were reported to your force between:
- a) 1st January 2024 - 30th June 2024
- b) 1st July 2024 - 31st December 2024
(if you are not able to provide figures between this window, please provide 1 year stats for the 2024 year, or 1 year and the date range they apply for)
5) Therefore, have you seen an increase/decrease in motor fraud in the year 2024 compared to the previous year? (1st January 2023 - 31st December 2023 vs 1st January 2024 - 31st December 2024)
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not held in a readily retrievable format as fraud crimes are not sub-classified into categories which would enable extraction of the requested information. Searches were conducted for all investigations with a Primary or Included classification of ‘Crime Investigation – Action Fraud: Call for Service’ or ‘Crime Investigation – Action Fraud: NFIB Referral’, recorded between 1st January 2024 and 31st December 2024. This search produced a total of 528 records and, in order to identify whether any information is recorded in relation to the type of fraud described in the article, it would be necessary to manually review the records on an individual basis. At 5 minutes per record, this would equate to 44 hours of work, which would be above the amount to which we are legally required to undertake, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ (£450), which equates to 18 hours work at a standard rate of £25 per hour as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
A similar amount of time would also be required for 2023 to obtain a comparison year.
In accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request; however, due to the number of records involved, I am unable to suggest a way to revise your request into one which could be answered within the fees limit. However, I can advise that fraud offences are now recorded by Action Fraud who do further classify fraud crimes into specific categories. You may wish to approach Action Fraud, as the national fraud reporting centre, in relation to the information requested using the link below.
https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
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