Highest rate of fraud outside London in NW
THE North West has the second highest number of frauds in the UK, according to BDO’s Fraud Track research.
The accountancy and business advisory firm’s 2016 FraudTrack analysis, which examines all reported fraud over £50,000, saw the region account for 73 cases in 2016, up 15.9% from 63 in 2015.
Overall, the highest number of frauds were perpetrated in London and the South East (159 cases in 2016) whilst the West Midlands recorded the third highest number of frauds (53 cases in 2016).
Despite the high volume of fraud in the North West, the overall value of fraud decreased by 22.3% in 2016 to £34.5m, the lowest level since 2012.
In value terms, London & the South East and the West Midlands remain the biggest hotspots for fraud in the UK despite a significant fall in the value of fraud compared to last year. This excludes Yorkshire, which rose 388.1% to £1.02bn due to one single large VAT fraud worth £1bn.
Notable cases in the North West during 2016 included a £3m fraud involving the smuggling of 55,000 litres of fuel and a large £5.2m third party fraud involving a Mr George Williams and his team of sales reps in Liverpool, who used contact lists traded with other fraudsters to pressure businesses into taking out adverts in “Emergency Services News”. Overall, tax fraud and third party fraud are the most common frauds in the region.
Mark Underwood, forensic accounting director at BDO, said: “We frequently work behind the scenes recovering funds for clients, however, the reputational damage from a business being associated with fraud often outweighs, in the mind of the business, the monetary value of the lost funds.
“For every fraud case you hear about there will be considerably more that you don’t. Additionally, police resources often have to be focused on other more tangible forms of crime meaning that businesses often take an unpublicised civil justice approach to recover their funds.”
