Yorkshire-based frauds almost treble – KPMG
YORKSHIRE-based frauds have almost trebled in value to £36m, according to KPMG.
KPMG’s bi-annual Fraud Barometer has shown that despite a slight drop in the number of frauds to 24 in 2013 (2012: 25), the total value of the offences in Yorkshire has increased from £13.3m to £36.2m over the past year.
The dramatic rise, which sees the average fraud value rise to £1.5m from £530,014, can be attributed to a case in Leeds that saw an IT manager fraudulently procure and sell on £19m of computer equipment from a business to feed his online gambling addiction. The regional results differ to the national findings which saw average case values fall.
Other cases in the region include a women from Sheffield who took over £470,000 from an elderly relative after being granted power of attorney, a building society manager from Barnsley who stole more than a quarter of a million pounds from her own family and friends to help her sons repay debt and a retired primary school headteacher from Birstall who was jailed after fraudulently taking £215,000 from an elderly woman.
Vivien Osborne, forensic director at KPMG in Leeds, said: “Like the national picture, Yorkshire’s Crown Courts predominantly dealt with ‘low-level’ fraud activity in 2013. We have seen some worrying incidents where people have abused their positions of responsibility and trust to defraud the vulnerable. In some cases, it has been their own family or the elderly that have been targeted.
“We are likely to see this type of activity continue in 2014 across the region as inflationary pressures on income and difficulties in managing debt tempt lower level con artists, rather than career criminals, to commit fraud.”
Nationally, the research revealed a high volume of fraud cases prosecuted in the UK in the past year but at much lower value levels than recorded in previous years – the average case value this year being £2.9m, compared to £6.1m over the last five years. The Fraud Barometer also shows that while fraudsters are at the cutting edge of technology – attacking banks in the virtual world for example – some have reverted to ‘paper and pen’ as organisations focus efforts on technology-driven defences.
