Synectics Solutions, Britain's leader in using data to detect and prevent fraud and wider economic crime, has partnered with the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) to help the finance and insurance industries guard against fraud and support efforts to tackle organised crime that harms communities.
NaVCIS investigations help identify those suspected of fraud or vehicle-related criminal activity, the evidence, intelligence and supporting analytical work is passed to police colleagues for further action.
As part of its role as a national policing unit that bridges the gap between policing and industry, NaVCIS issues intelligence alerts regarding ongoing investigations to Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) members who are registered for the service, along with law enforcement agencies and authorised stakeholders.
These alerts flag the names and details of individual victims whose personal data is being used to gain illicit finance by criminals, in addition to those responsible for the fraud. In using this intelligence, financiers can more easily recognise incidents of ID theft and prevent finance being taken out fraudulently - depriving criminals access to vehicles.
In recent years NavCIS has helped the police seize more than 5,000 vehicles, with a combined value of more than £75 million. NaVCIS intelligence shared with UK Port authorities, as well as police in Britain and the EU, has also helped disrupt organised crime - from drug and gun trafficking to large scale fraud, money laundering, and modern-day slavery.
Under the new agreement this valuable intelligence will be integrated into Synectics National SIRA solution - the UK’s largest syndicated database of cross-sector customer risk intelligence. All users of National SIRA, particularly FLA members, will therefore be able to automatically cross reference potential customer details with a richer data pool.
DCI Brett Mallon, Head of NaVCIS, commented: “As a centralised, specialist police capability, we are dedicated to developing and sharing intelligence to tackle vehicle finance crime and associated serious organised crime.
“Anything we can do to make that intelligence easier and quicker to utilise is a huge step in the right direction. As many FLA members already use Synectics Solutions’ National SIRA, it makes absolute sense to integrate our data into that solution to automate name checks in a way that hasn’t been possible previously.”
The agreement will also evolve into a two-way data sharing partnership under the SIRA Affiliate Membership model, with Synectics Solutions delivering intelligence derived from National SIRA data via its Special Investigation Unit (SIU) to NaVCIS to help expediate their investigations.
Chris Hallett, Insurance Product Manager and Head of SIU at Synectics Solutions, commented: “We are always looking to forge partnerships that help both parties achieve shared goals. In this case, the idea actually came from our FLA registered National SIRA members, with many of them suggesting what a powerful resource it would be to be able to automate checks with NaVCIS alerts and cross-reference information with wider risk intelligence data. Now, they can. It’s a win/win for everybody and we are delighted to be working with such an important law enforcement agency.”
Synectics Solutions works with data, and lots of it. 1/3 billion records to be precise. That data is used as a force for good by partnering with public and private sector organisations to build data sharing syndicates that provide meaningful insights and help contributors solve common problems. The challenges that Synectics Solutions help to solve are around organised financial crime, money laundering, customer identification and financial inclusion, which can only be addressed through collaboration.
Synectics Solutions is trusted by tier one banks, insurance companies and the likes of the Cabinet Office. Very few organisations can combine data and advanced technology in that way.
Synectics has been in business for almost 30 years. Over that time, they’ve won a number of accolades for being technological pioneers - including The Queen’s Award for Innovation – and along the way they’ve helped to identify and save organisations over £7.8 billion that could otherwise have been lost to error, fraud or wider financial crime.
Synectics is fully ISO27001 certified, is a UK Government Specified Anti-Fraud Organisation, and has the infrastructure, expertise and experience required to carry out the many business-critical data solutions for some of the world’s most regulated organisations.
The National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) is a national police unit hosted by Hampshire Constabulary. It operates independently, under the direction of the National Police Chief Councils’ vehicle crime lead ACC Jenny Sims.
In addition to tackling vehicle finance crime, NaVCIS supports the police in its response to wider vehicle crime through use of tracking technology, specialist ports capabilities and by providing training and guidance on activity involving specialist vehicles, from motorhomes to freight and agriculture vehicles.
A not-for-profit agency, the organisation is 100% funded by industry under the provisions of the Police Act 1996.