Crackdown On Britain's Most Wanted Fraudsters

Britain's 10 most wanted suspected fraudsters are to be identified as the Home Secretary announces a crackdown on fraud that "shames our financial system".

The list will be put together by a new joint taskforce made up of senior officials from the banking industry, law enforcement agencies and government.

The taskforce's aim is to speed up intelligence sharing between those key groups to ensure that they all work together for best effect to curb the activities of serious and organised crime gangs, who are estimated to cost Britain at least £24m a year.

Speaking at the launch of the scheme, Theresa May said: "The joint taskforce that we've launched today is a big step forward.

"It's important that we get on top of that. We need the industry to come together. Catch perpetrators of fraud and protect public.

"Our economy relies on the financial system and everyone in this country benefits from its global success.

"But the scale and volume of financial activity also brings serious risks of economic crime and real opportunities for criminals to defraud hardworking taxpayers of their savings and earnings.

"Fraud shames our financial system. It undermines the credibility of the economy, ruins businesses and causes untold distress to people of all walks of life.

"For too long, there has been too little understanding of the problem and too great a reluctance to take steps to tackle it."

Another aim of the group will be to look at information gaps and discover and remedy the weak links in systems and processes exploited by people committing fraud.

It will also be tasked with finding better ways of discovering who is committing the fraud.

Asked about her views on the Britain and plans for the EU referendum, Mrs May said: "First of all, I've said that what we've seen so far is the basis of a deal. We've got a couple of weeks of negotiations still to go.

"I've been clear that what we've seen so far is the basis of a deal. We hope that it will be continued at the council but negotiations continue."