City police chief calls for 'holistic' assault on fraud

The government should set up an impartial body with strategic oversight of fraud prevention and detection, the City of London's commissioner of police told a meeting of lawyers and other professionals last week.Speaking at a Fraud Advisory Panel (FAP) presentation at London's Guildhall, Commissioner Perry Nove said the City police are often surprised at how few checks and balances companies have in place to prevent fraud.And those companies which do have full checks and balances frequently honour them 'more in the breach than the observance', he said.He said that prevention of fraud was his most important priority, and that it was crucial to persuade government that it must get to grips with a strategic approach.'At the moment we have investigators investigating, detectives detecting, and no shortage of consultants selling advice.

What is required is a holistic approach,' he said.He added that the City police stands 'full square' behind the FAP in its calls for an independent oversight body.The FAP is a fraud think-tank consisting of academics and a wide range of professionals including many City solicitors.

It has long called for the establishment of an independent fraud scrutiny body.Other speakers backing an independent body included Liberal Democrat peer Lord Sharman, the former chairman of KPMG, who sits on the Department of Trade & Industry's Foresight committee - which investigates fraud - and Judith Mayhew, chairwoman of the Corporation of London's policy and resources committee, and special adviser to the chairman of City law firm Clifford Chance.Ms Mayhew said the Guildhall meeting was timely 'given the terrible events in America', with their 'obvious connections to financial fraud'.

Plans to push ahead with changes to European money laundering law, despite concerns about lawyers' confidentiality, could form part of the response to the attacks.Jeremy Fleming