Last week the Angus Adult Protection Committee hosted a financial harm and domestic abuse conference at Andrews Church Arbroath.
The event was compered by Council Leader , Cllr Beth Whiteside and featuring speakers from across the UK, including Daphne Franks who is campaigning to prevent others being the subject of predatory marriage.
Cllr Whiteside said, "It was a worthwhile event that provided staff from a number of agencies with information about financial harm and especially the financial abuse of women as part of domestic abuse.
"The conference marked the 10th anniversary of Angus Council being the first local authority in Scotland to formally adopt a policy on financial harm. It is fair to say that our policy on financial harm is as relevant today as it was when we first adopted it.
"Figures for the cost of fraud are not tremendously reliable as so much goes unreported. However The National Crime Agency has estimated UK losses in 2017 to fraudulent criminals to be a staggering £190 billion of which losses to individuals total £7 billion. Pro rata this would mean annual losses by Angus citizens to fraud totalling over £12 million.
"Myself and council colleagues remain proud that Angus has been a leading light in developing responses to this ever growing problem and we will continue to support efforts to both prevent people being victims of financial abuse and scams and to support and protect victims of financial abuse through our innovative Financial Abuse Support Team.”