ELDERLY victims of crime are being let down by police, a government report has concluded.

Dorset Police was one of six forces examined by two watchdogs as part of an investigation into the treatment of victims aged over 60.

Officials found care was not good enough in 101 of the 192 cases examined by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.

The report highlights “grave” concerns regarding safeguarding measures. Officials said: “Much work is needed.”

The Victims’ Code, a document that sets out the information and services to which victims have a right, was only complied with in 97 of the cases.

Inspectors also found 153 cases where a safeguarding referral should have been made by police to the local council. This did not happen in around half of the incidents.

“Crime against older people isn’t well understood, despite the vulnerability of older people and the importance that society attaches to looking after people in their old age,” the report concludes.

“There has been little police analysis of the problem, including the links to disability hate crime and domestic abuse.

“We found that police forces had only a superficial understanding of the problems, although all had recognised that fraud was an increasingly common concern for older victims.

“We were concerned to find that the number of crimes against older people referred by the police to the CPS has declined for two consecutive years, but there has been no co-ordinated action to find out why and what should be done.”

Referral to victim support services was “too inconsistent”, the watchdogs found, and older people were often not offered the support of an intermediary or given access to measures such as using hearing loops in court.

One anonymised case study was a 70-year-old with learning difficulties who gave their bank details to the friend of a neighbour and asked for help managing her finances.

The victim told police that large amounts of money had been stolen, and the person had taken advantage of her because she was vulnerable and lonely.

Officers only visited the victim 11 days later, and gave her no help in going through her bank statements to see what had been stolen. Two months later the suspect was invited for interview, but the case was later dropped due to lack of evidence.

HM Inspector of Constabulary, Wendy Williams, said: “While the care and concern of police officers for all victims of crime cannot be doubted, older victims often present unique challenges which need to be considered. Unfortunately, our inspection found that older people are often not treated according to their needs by the criminal justice system.”