Fraud in UK hits near-record levels
Monday 2nd February 2009, 11:38AM GMT.
Fraud in the UK hit almost record levels last year with more than £1 billion worth of cases heard in court.
The KPMG Forensic Fraud Barometer found 2008 had the second highest level of fraud out of the last 21 years.
Mortgage fraud rose drastically during the last 12 months, with cases totalling £36 million, compared to £3.7 million in 2007.
KPMG warned, however, that the worse was still to come with fraud committed since the credit crunch began in August 2007 yet to be heard in court.
“These figures are bad enough in themselves, but I fear the trend for the next couple of years will be even worse,” said Hitesh Patel, fraud investigation partner at KPMG Forensic.
“As the global economic downturn takes hold and organisations look ever more closely at their operations it is very likely that more fraud will come to light so that the real impact of the credit crunch on fraud is yet to be fully felt.”
Fraud committed by individuals saw a share rise in 2008, up three-fold to £300 million, while fraud committed by professional gangs remained fairly consistent.
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