Fraud cases exceeding £100k prosecuted within courts in the North East during the first half of 2022 had a combined value of more than £1m.
The latest KPMG Fraud Barometer revealed that while the overall volume and value of cases fell compared to the first six months of 2021, fraud experts are reminding individuals and businesses to be vigilant amidst ‘rampant fraud’ seen across the UK. There were just four cases in H1 2022 worth £1.1m, down from 10 cases collectively worth just over £3m in H1 2021.
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Across the North East, advanced fee fraud and cash and equivalent instruments fraud, such as counterfeit money and debit and credit card theft, were the two most common types of fraud activity.
Sara Smith, Director in KPMG’s Forensic practice in the North East, said: “It is encouraging to see that the North East has been relatively spared from the rampant levels of fraud hitting the country.
That said, £1m worth of fraud activity should still be taken seriously and corporate fraud remains a real threat for businesses across the UK and case levels in the region will likely catch up with the national figures. That’s why we’re warning individuals and businesses in the North East that they must not become complacent and let their guards down.
“The Government is stepping up its attention on fraud. The new Public Sector Fraud Authority will target criminal gangs who rip off the taxpayer, while the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy response on corporate governance and audit reform outlined new responsibilities for Directors in terms of making public their efforts to prevent and detect fraud in their organisations. This is a significant sea-change that will see businesses, and individuals, taking on more responsibility for tackling fraud. For business leaders that means urgently putting in place adequate controls that can detect and prevent these crimes.”
During the first half of 2022, the value of alleged fraud cases exceeding £100k heard in UK Crown Courts soared by almost 300% compared to the first six months in 2021, rising from £137.4m to a staggering £532.6m. This is above the total value of alleged fraud seen in Crown Courts during the whole of 2021, which reached almost £445m, demonstrating that the eruption of fraud sweeping the UK is showing no sign of slowing.
Despite this leap, figures from KPMG UK’s Fraud Barometer revealed that the volume of fraud cases reaching UK Crown Courts in H1 2022 was slightly lower than the same period in 2021, having decreased from 149 cases to 129 cases – a fall of 13%. This demonstrates that the Courts remain under severe pressure to resolve fraud cases, which became backed up during the peak of the pandemic and will continue to accumulate as the country deals with new crises that fraudsters will inevitably exploit.
The data also revealed a spike in high-value fraud cases reaching the UK Courts in H1 2022 compared to the first six months in 2021. There were seven cases seen valued between £10m-£50m and one case over the £50m mark to the value of £266m. There were no cases valued over £50m seen during the same period last year.
Professional criminals were once again the main perpetrators, responsible for 57 cases of fraud worth a total of £378m. This was down in terms of volume compared to the same period last year (67 cases), but the value went up dramatically by 319%, from £90.2m to £378m.
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