Civil Litigation as a First-Response Strategy: The UK Government's Fraud Strategy 2026–2029

What has happened?

In March 2026, the UK Government published its Fraud Strategy 2026–2029, part of a broader economic-crime policy package building on the Economic Crime Plan 2 (March 2023) and the Anti-Corruption Strategy, published in December 2025. The strategy's headline message for fraud victims is striking: do not wait for the state to act, but rather, seek redress from the court yourself.

The scale of the problem

Fraud remains the most commonly reported crime in England and Wales, costing the British economy at least £14.4 billion in 2023–2024. Over four million offences were estimated in the year ending September 2025, representing 45% of all crime in the Crime Survey for England and Wales, with approximately one in 14 adults falling victim during that period.

The character of the threat has changed materially. Criminals exploit weaknesses in the UK's corporate registration system, operate across borders, deploy AI deepfakes, hack email accounts to divert payments, and use VPNs to mask their locations.

A deliberate shift towards civil enforcement

One of the strategy's most striking aspects is its reliance on civil law to deliver justice that places the onus on victims, rather than the state, to redress wrongs and recover losses from fraudsters. This shift is understandable in context: the total number of fraud prosecutions has fallen by 56% since 2015, and fraud cases now take over 626 days on average to reach the charging stage, compared to an average of 80 days for all other cases.

This sits alongside, and is arguably complementary to, the expansion of state-led criminal liability under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA), which introduced a new failure-to-prevent-fraud offence in force since September 2025. Together, the two developments suggest a distribution of responsibility across the system: organisations must strengthen prevention through compliance, while victims and the civil courts are increasingly expected to pursue recovery in lower-harm or evidentially complex cases.

New infrastructure to support recovery

The UK Government has committed £31 million to launch the Online Crime Centre (OCC), bringing together UK policing, the United Kingdom Intelligence Community (UKIC) (including the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)) and private sector partners from the financial, telecommunications, and technology industries. The OCC's intelligence product — identifying perpetrators, their digital footprint, and financial flows — may in time provide a richer evidential foundation for civil proceedings, particularly for freezing injunctions, Norwich Pharmacal orders, and other pre-action disclosure remedies.

Since October 2024, banks have been mandatorily reimbursing losses where victims are deceived into authorised push payment (APP) fraud, with 88% (£173 million) of in-scope losses reimbursed in the scheme's first year. However, at least £629.3 million was stolen in the first half of 2025 alone, the majority consisting of unauthorised fraud falling outside the mandatory reimbursement scheme, which leaves those victims reliant on the civil courts.

What this means for victims — act now

Civil litigation offers considerable advantages: a lower standard of proof, remedies directed at recovering your losses, and powerful tools including worldwide freezing injunctions, Norwich Pharmacal disclosure orders, and claims in knowing receipt against those who have handled the proceeds of fraud.

Civil fraud proceedings are acutely time-sensitive. The viability of freezing applications, asset tracing, and third-party disclosure orders all depend on prompt action. Reporting to the authorities and pursuing civil proceedings are not mutually exclusive and the range of potential defendants extends beyond the primary fraudster to associated individuals, corporate vehicles, and any party that has facilitated or benefited from the scheme.

With the window for meaningful recovery often narrow, civil litigation is no longer a residual option. It is now a primary mechanism for delivering justice.

If you have suffered a fraud loss or wish to discuss any of the matters raised in this alert, please contact Robert.Weekes@crowell.com and Nicola.Phillips@crowell.com.