FOI 1022-2025 / Oct 2025 / Winter fuel payment scams
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 1022-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 13th October 2025 as follows:
- The number of reports, complaints or cases recorded by your organisation relating to winter fuel payment scams, energy rebate scams, or cost-of-living payment scams in each of the past three financial years (2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25 to date).
- Where possible, please break down the figures by:
- Month or quarter;
- Age group of the victims (if held);
- Type of scam (e.g. text message, phone call, email, doorstep, or other).
- Any recorded data on the total amount of money lost to these scams in each period.
- Any details of successful prosecutions, arrests, or enforcement actions taken relating to these scams.
Response:
Please be advised that the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. Any reports relating to energy/cost of living scams would be recorded as ‘Crime Investigation – Action Fraud: Call for Service’ or ‘Crime Investigation – Action Fraud: NFIB Referral’.
These are not further sub-classified into individual categories which would enable identification of such scams. In order to determine whether such investigations made reference to an energy/cost of living scam it would be necessary to review each investigation, recorded during the stated period, on an individual basis. This would take approximately 3-5 minutes per record to review in order to determine whether they fit the categories described in the request. On average there are between 500 and 600 such crimes/referrals recorded each year, which would equate to approximately 1,500 to 1,800 records for a 3-year period. Even taking the lower figures of 3 minutes to review 1,500 reports, this equates to in excess of 75 hours of work.
This would therefore be above the amount of work to which we are legally required to undertake, i.e., the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ (£450) as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
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.
I can advise that fraud related offences are recorded by Action Fraud who do further classify fraud into specific categories. You may wish to approach Action Fraud, as the national fraud reporting centre, in relation to the information requested.
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 Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB