Matrix Intelligence's Stuart McDonald covers fraud in a featured article for The Mirror, "Fed-up with the lack of police results, victims of fraud are going private".

Companies and individuals hit by frauds are losing faith that the police will help and are instead turning to private investigation experts.

A briefing for finance industry insiders heard how just 3% of fraud cases result in charges or prosecution.

Stuart McDonald of corporate investigations company Matrix Intelligence also cited figures showing a 20% increase in online shopping and auction fraud last year, and a 61% increase in remote banking fraud.

“Depressingly, fraud is now the most likely crime that members of the British public will become a victim of, with more than one in three of us being affected, but just over 1% of police resources are dedicated to dealing with it,” he said.

“That is probably the most depressing statistic of them all.”

“Very often when we have someone come to us we direct them to the police and they simply come back and say they realise that they’re going to get no satisfaction via that mechanism and ask could they pay to potentially investigate privately.”

“It’s not ideal but it is something that we do if the client has the resources and we deem there’s a likelihood of successful recovery.”

“If there isn’t, then it’s about management of expectations and saying to the client we believe they should cut their loses.”

Click here to see the full article in The Mirror.