Tuesday 19th January, 2016

According to KPMG’s latest Fraud Barometer, the total cost (£732 million) of fraudulent activity in the UK remains worryingly high, up from £717 million in 2014.

KPMG’s research has shown that men are once again the most likely perpetrators of fraud, and were responsible for 85% of all losses in 2015 (£619m). This is a significant increase on the previous year when male fraudsters were responsible for 60% of the losses incurred (£431m).

This increase has been driven by men over the age of 45, whose actions caused losses of £529m. More than half of these were the result of insider fraud, with employees and management abusing their position of trust to defraud employers, investors and customers of £303m.

Hitesh Patel, Forensic Partner at KPMG in the UK, commented: “These fraudsters are often respected individuals in a position of trust, who have the opportunity and means to commit the fraud, making it hard for companies to easily detect the same. Employers must remain alert to tell-tale behaviours which can indicate a fraud is taking place, such as a refusal to relinquish mundane tasks, an aversion to independent review or obfuscation when questioned.”

Regionally, across London and the South East there was a marked increase in the value of frauds being committed by managers and employees which was up by 153% on 2014 figures. In one case a mother of two from Surrey stole £1.75 million from the family business that she worked for as bookkeeper.

Across the North East the value of fraud rose by 746% in 2015 to £139.4m (from £16.5m in 2014). This figure represents the highest rise across the UK and is dominated by one £111m case.

The volume of Scottish cases bucks UK trend, falling for second consecutive year. Although the volume of cases committed by employees and management against their own employers, increased by 83% from six in 2014 to 11 in 2015, particularly in the Scottish public sector.