Fraudsters have taken the £10,000 ‘life savings’ of a York resident, according to a city MP.

York Outer MP Luke Charters gave the stark reality of financial fraud on online selling though platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, in a debate he secured in parliament this week as he called for new measures to tackle the £1.2billion problem.

The Oxford University-educated Labour MP, who was previously head of fraud and compliance at a finance and technology firm, issued a list of seven measures, including  creating a specialist agency to deal with fraud and for social media companies to be more liable.

He told Parliament: “The risks are real, and if scams continue to increase exponentially we will have a dangerous environment for businesses.”

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“We currently suffer from relatively weak national co-ordination in tackling fraud and economic crime,” which causes police to give such matters low priority. Fraud accounts for 40 per cent of UK crime, he said, but receives just 1per cent of police resources.

Mr Charters said better regulation and coordination was needed. A new national anti-fraud centre could tackle the challenges. Australia created one last year, which started tackling investment scams and then those advertising non-existent jobs.

He explained: “That would join up the SFO, the Financial Conduct Authority, Action Fraud, the NCA, the Met police, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and local police forces, and it would do that with a central leadership, because our institutions are currently too fragmented to properly deal with fraud.”

In addition: “The Government could introduce a shared responsibility and liability for social media and telecommunications firms to tackle fraud origination and incentivise them to invest to prevent fraud.

“A new anti-fraud centre could govern regulatory powers over social media companies and impose penalties or issue guidance to reduce fraud. That would tackle the things we heard about earlier, such as fraud originating from Facebook Marketplace.”

Shadow Home Office Minister Paul Holmes responded that the previous Conservative government had created a new national fraud squad, with 400 new specialist investigators, with fraud made a priority for the police.

Mr Holmes also asked Security Minister Dan Jarvis to look at creating an anti-fraud centre, as well as parliament having an ‘anti-fraud tsar’ to champion the issue, another recommendation from Mr Charters.

Dan Jarvis praised the new York MP for his expertise and for raising the issue, also welcoming support from opposition MPs. Mr Jarvis said it was too soon to give a policy but added: “I give him the assurance that I will take them away and come back to him with a response as we continue to shape this Government’s approach.”

After the debate, Mr Charters welcomed the support he had received, saying such measures were needed to help prevent people like his constituent from losing huge sums.

He said: “It’s a good opportunity to grasp the nettle and become a world-leader in anti-fraud.”

After the debate, Thirsk and Malton MP Kevin Hollinrake, the Shadow Business Secretary, said that creating was specific anti-fraud agency was interesting that merits further consideration.

He also told the Press: “There is no doubt that fraud is happening much more frequently and a more joined up approach would seem to be the right way to tackle it.”