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The total value of reported fraud in 2015 rose to £1.5 billion, which is apparently an increase of 110% from the previous year and the highest value since 2011.
However, the latest BDO FraudTrack report, which examines reported fraud cases over £50,000 in the UK, also found that the total number of cases had fallen by 5.2%, with only 519 reported cases in 2015 compared to 546 cases in 2014. The average value of fraud meanwhile has risen 121% to £2.9 million, with some of the largest cases brought to court reaching over £250 million.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the financial services sector continues to be the sector attracting the highest level of fraud. The value of reported fraud in this area more than doubled, from £238 million in 2014 to £567 million in 2015. 2015 saw a small number of very high value cases, which impacted the sector’s results as the volume of fraud fell by more than 40%, with 70 cases in 2015 down from 119 cases in 2014.
In terms of fraud per location, London and the South East continue to grow as the hotspot for reported fraud in UK, with the value of fraud in the area increasing to £600 million in 2015 from £483 million in 2014, and accounting for 40% of all fraud overall. In Scotland, the total value of fraud rose sharply from £10,130,000 in 2014, to £18,164,492 in 2015.
Prosecutions against non-corporates or individuals have continued to grow in 2015, having risen in both volume and value every year since 2012. In 2015 there were 152 reported cases of reported fraud with a total value of £277 million, up from 96 cases totalling £101 million in 2014. An analysis of these cases shows that the majority were committed against the elderly and vulnerable.
If you require specialist criminal defence advice on this or any other matter, give us a call on 01383 807550 (Dunfermline), 01592 859236 (Kirkcaldy) or 01259 725922 (Alloa). Alternatively, you can contact us online here.
