Scams in Dumfries and Galloway take 'serious amounts of money'

Scammers in south west Scotland conned people out of "many hundreds of thousands of pounds" last year, say police.

A financial harm strategy has now been launched in Dumfries and Galloway to try to tackle the issue.

Police said everyone had to work together to stop what was "fast becoming a tide of criminality".

A plan to raise awareness and share information between organisations has now been put in place.

Ch Insp Stephen Stiff said anyone could find themselves being targeted.

'Extremely complex'

"The many methods used to commit these types of crime can be extremely complex and varied," he said.

"Those affected are not just those who might be seen as vulnerable in our communities."

He said the scams could be carried out via the internet or email, written correspondence, telephone calls, cold callers or bogus workmen.

"Many crimes are committed by people overseas or from outside Dumfries and Galloway so tracing the criminals can often be extremely challenging," he added.

"Nevertheless we will use every mechanism available to us to bring offenders to justice, but a large part of our plan is aimed at making it more difficult for criminals to operate in our area in the first place."

The plan being put in place will involve:

• staff awareness training across a host of agencies

• information sharing between organisations about current trends

• a public awareness raising programme

• enforcement agencies working to "maximise the disruption" of perpetrators

"This type of crime is clearly on the increase across Scotland and here in Dumfries and Galloway we are not immune from any of these types of scams, thefts and fraudulent schemes," said Ch Insp Stiff.

"In 2018 officers in the Division have dealt with a large number of high value scams and frauds, which in some cases have netted as much as £40,000, £60,000 and £70,000 for the perpetrators.

"These are serious amounts of money which impact on the long term wellbeing of individuals and their families."

'Public protection'

Freda McShane, who chairs the public protection committee for Dumfries and Galloway, welcomed the approach.

"The strategy reinforces the importance of prevention and early intervention in tackling this type of crime and details the way in which communities and agencies will work together to raise awareness of the issue," she said.

"All partners across the wider remit of public protection in our region fully support this approach and strategy."