Region bucks fraud trend
THE North West bucked a national trend last year by recording a drop in the number of fraud cases.
The volume of UK fraud cases snowballed in 2010, with 314 incidents with a total value of almost £1.4bn being reported, according to accountancy firm KPMG.
However, the number of cases in the North West dropped by nine to 29. According to KPMG’s Fraud Barometer survey, the value of these frauds also fell by more than half to £28.8m (2009: £61.9m).
Martin Dougall, head of forensic for KPMG in the North West, said: “It is certainly pleasing that the North West successfully bucked the national trend in 2010. However, the conditions for fraud remain in place, and public and private sector organisations should not be complacent.”
Among the cases which came to curt during the second half of the year included two men from Burnley who were convicted for a £12m ‘cash for crash’ insurance scam, the bosses of a healthcare firm convicted of a £1.2m false accounting scam, three Altrincham men convicted of £1m worth of mortgage fraud and a 27 year-old Manchester man convicted of a £777,000 scam involving iTunes vouchers.
“The online universe has opened up a whole new world for innovative fraudsters. While credit card and data theft remain common tools from which they are able to profit, the need for ever more effective techniques to combat fraud grow greater by the day,” said Mr Dougall.
