A SPECIAL constable has won a regional award for helping protect victims of fraud.

Matt West scooped the title of South East special constable of the year at the Citizens in Policing awards on Saturday.

The 50-year-old, based in Rother, was praised for more than 30 years of work helping victims of crime.

Particularly in the last three years he has supported those targeted by fraudsters, particularly elderly and vulnerable victims. He has so far helped some 50 victims who have lost more than £50,000, including a number of complex cases.

His work included visits and phone calls, acting as a go between with banks and money lenders to help victims change bank accounts, email addresses and phone numbers as well as carry out referrals to adult social services.

He has also helped install phone blocking systems.

Mr West said: “Receiving the award was a great surprise for me and I feel really proud.

“I believe as a special I give something back to the community. I also accept this for all specials across Sussex and the UK, who do an excellent job of supporting their regular colleagues and the communities they serve in.

“In my 32 years I have enjoyed my time and experienced a wide variety of incidents and different types of people.

“In my role working with victims of fraud I have worked with a large number who had suffered from people scamming them out of large amounts of money.”

His special constable colleagues Pete Jennings and Lee Bates were runners up in the team of the year award after working more than 150 hours since January.

The awards were held at the American Community Express Stadium.

Honours were also presented to the force’s police support volunteers and cadets.

Eastbourne cadets, run by Sergeant Fiona Munro, also won team of the year and Brighton and Hove-based cadet Harry Marchant, aged 14 was the overall winner of his category.

Chief Constable Giles York said: “I am incredibly proud of each and every one of them. Communities tell us they want more involvement in how they are policed and to be given the opportunity to influence policing priorities.

“Citizens in policing are an integral part of modern day policing and the support that volunteers provide for officers and staff is invaluable.

“A volunteer in policing is in the unique position of being a member of the communities we serve as well as a member of your own policing family.

“This means that support and recognition is a vital part of our dedication to increasing community engagement and providing the best quality of service we can.”