UK criminals swap traditional methods for digital misdeeds

More than half of convicted cyber criminals have records for "traditional" offences such as theft and burglary, according to research that provides the first proof that Britain's analogue crooks are making the move to digital.

In the run-up to the general election, Conservative ministers have burnished their crime-fighting credentials on successive data releases showing crime levels plunging to historic lows. But a Cambridge university study, seen exclusively by the Financial Times, argues that levels of cyber crime are "significantly higher" than the official statistics suggest - and presents evidence that suggests falls in old-school offences such as robbery and car theft might be partly due to criminals changing their methods.

The most striking finding is that 64 per cent of cyber criminals had convictions for non-cyber offences such as false representation, theft, shoplifting, battery and assault. In compiling his research, Jon Boutcher - deputy chief constable at Bedfordshire Police - interviewed hundreds of convicted cyber criminals and catalogued their offending histories.

"The study shows those traditional offenders are changing their behaviour and moving to the internet," the report reads, noting that online crime is increasingly perceived by technical amateurs as a "low-risk, high-reward type of offending". It adds that most of those who had been convicted did not possess technical knowledge, but had learnt their skills on YouTube and online forums.

"I was given simple instructions which I followed," said one offender quoted in the report. Another said: "It seemed so simple to commit the fraud and make easy money."

Lawrence Sherman, director of Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology, described Mr Boutcher's background profiling as "the strongest evidence that we have that there may be diversion of traditional criminals into cyber activity . . . [and that] this might take them out of that traditional crime".

"I was really surprised to see the presence of violent crime [such as assault] in what we normally think of as a fairly cerebral nerdy thing to do: to sit in your bedroom all by yourself and rip people off, and then rub your hands and cackle with glee," Prof Sherman said.

"You don't think of that being done by someone who's bold as brass enough to demand that you give them your purse or else they punch you out, or stick a knife in your back and say, 'give me your wallet'."

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However, the Cambridge study questions the accuracy of UK crime data, having conducted a survey showing only 11 per cent of cyber crime victims are reporting offences to the police. Arguing that the official figures are "wholly unreliable", the research concludes that cyber crime levels are "significantly higher than those reflected in the British Crime Survey or police statistics".

Professor Sherman said whichever party won the general election would have to make radical changes to the country's cyber crime approach. "I do think that in the next government there's got to be a much greater rationalisation of both cyber crime and fraud in the national policing landscape, which has clearly changed a lot in the last five years," he said.

The Conservative party's manifesto includes a pledge to improve the UK's cyber response by expanding the number of volunteer police officers with technical expertise.

Yvette Cooper, Labour's shadow home secretary, said her party had frequently warned the government that crime was changing. "From grooming children to financial fraud, cyber crime is soaring and the police are struggling to keep up," she told the Financial Times. "But 17,000 police have been cut since 2010 and the Conservatives want to go further in the next parliament. This is the wrong decision when police forces are coping with this growth in new and emerging online crime."

Ms Cooper added that a future Labour government would set up a new "FraudWatch" website to build up intelligence on online criminals, and seek to lure the best IT graduates into police forces to help combat the increasing cyber threat.

The Home Office declined to comment on the report.

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