Fraud explodes in 2006

Last year saw record levels of fraud in the UK, while cases in Scotland almost trebled

Last year saw the highest level of fraud in the UK for 20 years according to market watcher KPMG.

The firm’s annual Fraud Barometer, which tracks cases of over £100,000 in the UK Crown Court system, claimed 277 fraud cases came to court, worth a total of £837m, compared to 222 cases worth £942m in 2005.

Over 40 per cent of all fraud cases were carried out by professional criminals (63 cases out of 154), compared with a quarter of cases in the first half of the year. In addition, companies’ own managers were responsible for 40 per cent of fraud by value – totalling £350m.

Jeremy Outen, partner at KPMG Forensic said: “The proliferation of frauds carried out by organised crime gangs is extremely worrying. They have clearly been stepping up their efforts with ID theft, card scams, bank insider frauds, money laundering and cigarette and VAT frauds their most common forms of attack.

“Despite considerable government efforts to make it harder for such gangs to operate, there is still a long way to go. With company managers committing nearly £350m of fraud as well – nine times the value of the frauds committed by the people they supervise – the figures produce a picture of a country where fraud is becoming worryingly deep-rooted.”

In addition, fraud in Scotland almost trebled last year, KPMG claimed. A total of 22 cases came to court worth £50m, compared to 15 cases worth £18m in 2005.