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Written question asked by Peter Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party) on Tuesday, 22 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 24 November 2005. It was answered by Shaun Woodward (Labour) on Tuesday, 6 December 2005 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office.

Fraud and Forgery

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) fraud and (b) forgery offences have been reported to (i) East Belfast District Command Unit and (ii) Castlereagh District Command Unit in each year since 1998; how many reports led to (A) prosecution and (B) conviction; and what this figure is as a percentage of the total.
Answer

The following tables detail how many fraud and forgery offences have been reported to East Belfast and Castlereagh DCU's in each year since 1988 together with the number of prosecutions and convictions relating to fraud and forgery offences in the period 2000 to 2003 (2000 being the earliest date and 2003 the most current date for which this information is available). As prosecutions and convictions data cannot be linked to offences reported data, it is not possible to provide a meaningful percentage of one in relation to the other.

East Belfast District Command Unit
Deception Forgery and counterfeiting Making off without payment Other frauds Total fraud and forgery
1998–99 210 17 91 2 320
1999–2000 239 32 111 3 385
2000–01 294 42 184 5 525
2001–02 229 25 256 0 510
2002–03 279 15 180 8 482
2003–04 94 3 137 5 239
2004–05 83 11 152 6 252
Total 1428 145 1111 29 2713
Castlereagh District Command Unit
Deception Forgery and counterfeiting Making off without payment Other frauds Total fraud and forgery
1998–99 89 15 133 1 238
1999–2000 107 22 189 1 319
2000–01 90 10 172 1 273
2001–02 342 38 294 1 675
2002–03 169 36 182 3 390
2003–04 107 7 131 1 246
2004–05 75 3 54 2 134
Total 979 131 1155 10 2275
East Belfast DCU
Fraud Forgery
Prosecutions Convictions Prosecutions Convictions
2000 6 1 1 1
2001 5 5 4 4
2002 11 9 6 6
2003 12 10 1 1
Total 35 30 12 12
Castlereagh DCU
Fraud Forgery
Prosecutions Convictions Prosecutions Convictions
2000 8 6 0 0
2001 4 3 2 2
2002 9 3 2
2003 7 7 2 2
Total 28 24 7 6
Note: Prosecutions and convictions data is based on the police district command unit in which an offender's address falls

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
440 c1259-60W;440 c1259-60W; 31989
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Convictions Belfast Fraud Forgery Northern Ireland Prosecutions
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk