Fraud cases in court hit record total £1.3bn last year

The KPMG Forensic Fraud Barometer reveals that a number of Yorkshire companies were victims of serious crime. Analysts are calling on firms to be vigilant because fraudsters have become more cunning.

The noughties witnessed a big rise in serious fraud cases, according to the KPMG survey.

Around 1,750 cases of serious fraud came to court, compared with only 700 cases in the 1990s. More than 7bn of fraud was heard in Britain's courts in the noughties, compared with less than 5bn in the 1990s.

In Yorkshire, there were 29 cases of serious fraud last year, totalling 29.5m.

Cases that have appeared in Yorkshire's courts in the last six months have included convictions related to a 500,000 mortgage fraud carried out by a bank customer who was helped by a mortgage broker, accountant and solicitor.

There was also a 3.27m asset stripping business fraud which resulted in the collapse of three Sheffield companies and the loss of 46 jobs. A group of people fraudulently acquired the companies as collateral against loans which they used to pay for "lifestyle costs" including holidays.

Last year, a businessman in Grimsby defrauded creditors of 280,000 before being made bankrupt.

Vivien Osborne, a director in KPMG's Leeds forensic practice, said: "Britain appears to have a rising fraud problem, as is evident by looking at the steady increase through the last ten years.

"The last decade, I am afraid, could certainly be dubbed the naughty noughties'.

"The credit crunch will undoubtedly make the situation worse, and we are yet to see the full impact of it. The forecast therefore is: getting worse. The comfort, if there is any, is that more fraud cases are successfully being brought to court."

According to KPMG, companies have become better at spotting the signs of fraud. There has also been a greater focus on corporate governance and new laws to combat fraud have been introduced.