Fraud levels increase 50% in 2011, say BDO
BDO are a large and well respected accountancy practice in the UK. Like many accountancy practices, they now offer a range of services including fraud investigation and forensic analysis services and for some years they have published data about fraud. Their latest report has some interesting findings, and implications :-
- BDO’s report claims that reported private sector fraud in the UK exceeded £2 billion for the first time in n 2011
- The above represents a massive 50% increase from 2010.
- The retail sector saw the biggest rise in percentage of the reported fraud, up to over 10%
Increase in fraud doe to be an unfortunate side effect of harder economic realities, although it may also reflect changing societal values, as evidenced by the plundering in the riots, the problem of insurance claim and personal injury fraud, mortgage application fraud and so on. Interestingly, BDO also suggest that the true scale of fraud may be 10 times higher or more, as the majority of businesses either don’t have any or sufficient measures or procedures in place to find fraud or they do not report it. The reasons why they do not report fraud are complex and multifarious and perhaps appropriate for a separate blog post !
For more on the BDO report, click the link.
What do you think of these figures and developments, or about the causes of fraud and whether it has become a bigger problem in our society ? We’d love to have your views.