CARD fraud losses in the region reached £27m last year despite advances in security, figures released today reveal.

In the North-East, £6.8m was stolen using fake debit and credit cards in 2004, while in Yorkshire and Humberside card losses hit £20.2m.

Nationally, card fraud rose by 20 per cent to more than £500m last year despite the introduction of chip and PIN security measures.

Sandra Quinn, director of corporate communications at the UK Payments Association, which published the figures, said the situation would have been far worse if security measures had not been improved.

"When the banking industry decided to introduce chip and PIN in the UK, our fraud forecasts showed that, without it, card fraud losses would top £800m by 2005," she said.

"So, while we still have a battle on our hands, we are on track to see a significant reduction in this amount.

"As more of us use a PIN, the harder the criminal's life becomes."

Mrs Quinn said police and banks were working on other ways to stop card fraud, including a specialist police squad targeting organised gangs, thought to be behind most of UK card frauds.

"There is a whole raft of fraud prevention initiatives in place and in the pipeline to prevent, deter and detect all kinds of card fraud," said Mrs Quinn.

The biggest type of fraud continues to be on items bought online, by phone or by fax, when the card cannot be seen. Last year, more than £150m was lost this way.

Identity theft also grew significantly last year, but remains a small proportion of overall fraud losses.

Together, fraud on lost and stolen cards and counterfeit cards accounted for almost half of all losses.

Fraud on cards stolen before cardholders received them also grew sharply - up by 62 per cent to £72.9m.