An ex-policeman has accused Surrey Police of allowing the county to become a “haven for fraudsters” after it emerged that it will not actively pursue some cases.

The man, who wants to remain anonymous, claims that his request to investigate a fraud which cost him £1,600 was not taken up by police who told him that it was a fraud allegation that “fell outside their criteria matrix”.

He was told that his case had been classified as “not for investigation” by the Surrey Police Crime Management Team.

When this newspaper contacted the police to confirm the existence of the matrix, it was admitted, after a lengthy Freedom of Information (FOI) request, that such a system is used for “less serious frauds reported locally”.

But the man accused the force of giving criminals a mandate to commit fraud without fear of repercussion.

He said: “I find it incredible that certain parts of English law are being ignored because the police are able to decide what gets investigated.

“It could be that you have lots of evidence, which would get ignored precisely because it is not on the 'criteria matrix'.

“Why bother having legislation if the police don’t stick to it?

“They have given criminals a mandate to go out and commit less serious fraud without the fear of repercussions.”

The FoI response from Surrey police stated that the Matrix had been used in various formats for many years to manage the number of investigations compared with the number of investigators.

More serious cases of fraud are dealt with by the Commercial Fraud Unit based in Dorking.

Over the past year, 93 cases were referred to the unit, 33 of which were not investigated because they did not amount to criminal offences or “were not matters dealt with by the police”.

The current system was introduced in the summer of 2010 following the implementation of a a policing review that a Surrey Police spokesperson confirmed was “clearly driven by government cuts”.

The FOI statement said: “The matrix referred to has been implemented on the divisions and relates to less serious frauds reported locally.

“It seeks to prioritise on offence type, offender, victim and location.”

Temporary Detective Superintendent Mark stressed that a matrix was an essential tool in prioritising manpower and resources when investigating all areas of crime.

This newspaper has asked to see a copy of the matrix but it had not been provided at the time we went to press.

What do you think of the 'matrix' system? Is it a mandate for criminals to commit 'less-serious' crime, or is there no such thing and all crimes should be treated equally?

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