FOI Counterfeit Money Reports (0481-2024/25)

Request
Please supply the following information for each of the last three calendar years (1st January 2021 - 31st December 2021, 1st January 2022 - 31st December 2022 and 1st January 2023 - 31st December 2023):

Q1. How many reports did your force receive of counterfeit money being used to pay for goods/services?

Q2. In relation to Q1, how many arrests were made?

Extent of Searches to Locate Information
Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police to locate relevant information. 

Decision 
Section 12 (2) allows a public authority to refuse a request where it estimates that it would exceed to appropriate limit to either comply with the request in its entirety or confirm or deny whether the requested information is held.

Due to the nature of our recording systems; the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format.

Crimes of fraud are investigated by the National Crime Agency.  As such, whilst reports of fraud may have been made to the Police, a manual read of those fraud offences would be required to determine which, if any, are relevant to your request, specifically those involving counterfeit money.  

Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.

Pursuant to Section 16 of the Act I am required to offer you advice and assistance with regarding to refining your request to within the ‘appropriate limit’ (time/cost limit). However, due to the information provided above I am unable to suggest how you may refine your request and still receive the information within the cost threshold.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.