Total fraud soars 55% to £1.1 billion in 2016

The value of alleged fraud reaching UK Courts broke the £1 billion barrier in 2016, due to a resurgence in 'super cases', cases where the value of alleged fraud is £50 million or more. This is the first time since 2011 that alleged losses from fraud has exceeded £1 billion.

The KPMG Fraud Barometer found that despite the volume of alleged fraud dropping by nearly a third from 310 cases to 220, the value was up over 55% on last year’s £732 million - this year saw £1,137 million of alleged fraud hitting UK courts. Consequently, the average value of fraud has more than doubled to £5.2 million from £2.4 million. In addition, fraud against businesses was up seven-fold this year with internal fraud committed by employees and management the most common type of fraud to hit businesses. 
 
KPMG’s report highlights that insider fraud is the most common type of fraud to hit businesses. Our people are often our strongest asset but they can also be the weakest and most vulnerable link. It’s essential that organisations work hard to encourage an anti-fraud culture and invest in solutions to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their workforce and secure prosperity for their business.

The Internal Fraud Database is a data sharing scheme designed to help responsible employers to minimise the risk of employing a fraudster. 

Take the Fraud Defence Test. The test, developed by City of London Police and built with funding from the Home Office’s Police Innovation Fund, takes just a couple of minutes and is designed to help you understand how you could become a victim of fraud in relation to your circumstances and knowledge of fraud.