MORE than 70 per cent of Dorset residents who contacted the national Action Fraud service say they dissatisfied with the service.

The figures come from a survey carried out by police and crime commissioner, Martyn Underhill.

He has described the response as “massively depressing” and will be taking the findings to a meeting with the service in London next month.

A Sunday Times investigation earlier this year exposed how staff offered little, or no, help to many fraud victims and in some cases refused to treat identity theft as a problem.

Mr Underhill says that since 2013 when Action Fraud was started it has been run by four different organisation and now appeared to be failing to meet some of the objectives set for it. Mr Underhill said that, nationally, cyber crime now accounted for around half of all offences yet the Government’s response to it was fragmented, at best.