SCOTLAND faces a “fraud epidemic” as the number of incidents rocket with police struggling to solve just one in six cases, Scottish Labour has warned.

New figures published by the Scottish government show that the number of frauds reported to Police Scotland jumped by a staggering 140 per cent between 2014-15 and 2023-24, from 6,913 to 16,624.

The surge appears largely driven by online crime, which now makes up 59 per cent of all reported fraud, a share that trebled in between 2019 and 2024.

Forty per cent of those cyber frauds were thought to have originated from outside Scotland, compared ith 11 per cent from within, but in 49 per cent of cases, the location of the perpetrator was unknown, driving a collapse in Police Scotland’s clear-up rate from 50.6 per cent a decade ago to just 16.5 per cent in 2023-24.

With crimes of dishonesty — of which fraud now accounts for 15 per cent — remaining the most prevalent crime in the country at 37 per cent of the total, Scottish Labour’s Katy Clark has called for action to turn the tide.

She said: “Fraud can rob victims of their life savings while also destroying their ability to trust others, yet too often the perpetrators are allowed to repeat the same crime again and again.

“Yet even as police are struggling to solve fraud crimes, the number of cases is soaring.

“The SNP must support police and anti-fraud organisations to combat this fraud epidemic and bring the ruthless individuals behind it to justice.

“Scottish Labour will equip police for the 21st century so that their investigative tools can keep pace with modern criminals.”

A Scottish government spokesperson said Police Scotland has plans to establish a new cyber and fraud specialist division to tackle growing online crime.