We must go further and faster to save public from grifters

BEFORE my election to Parliament, I spent more than a decade working across a number of banks, combatting financial crime and corruption.

- Phil Brickell MP

But it's only since becoming an MP that I've fully understood the devastating effects of fraud in my community. Every week I read horror stories about pensioners being conned out of their life savings, and vulnerable people - young and old - tricked by twisted romance scams and get-rich-quick frauds.

Even just buying a ticket for a football match or gig these days is fraught with danger, as scammers pounce on any opportunity to con us out of our hard-earned money.

But this crisis goes well beyond financial losses.

Victims are often emotionally and psychologically scarred, embarrassed and isolated - having been manipulated by sophisticated gangs. And, as a tool of organised crime, fraud goes hand-in-hand with all manner of other evils, from drug dealing to knife crime contributing to violence and exploitation up and down the country.