FORGET Facebooking, the biggest fad sweeping this great nation of ours is none other than fraud. From the phoney reasons for going to war, to cash-in-hand decorating jobs, everyone is at it.
According to research by accountants KPMG, more than 100 fraud cases came to court in the last six months, with a value of almost £600million.
Central to this fraud frenzy has been carousel or ‘missing trader’ frauds, where goods, often mobile phones, are imported into the country free of VAT, then sold on with the VAT included with the dodgy dealers then disappearing before they pass on the VAT to customs. These carousel frauds were worth a whopping £440million.
Professionals criminal were involved in one third of cases coming court at a total value of £538million or 91 per cent of the total value with ID thefts, fake bank cards and money laundering all rather popular.
Hitesh Paul of KPMG says: “The recent trend now looks unmistakable. The amount of fraud coming to court has undergone a step-change over the last couple of years, and these high levels look like they are here to stay. The good news is that more fraud is being detected and prosecuted in court. The bad news is that this is probably because more fraud is being committed.”
The report also focuses on the case of one organist who stole £150,000 from his church and a jailed City boy who proceeded to rip off fellow inmates to the tune of £160,000.
Good to see the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Blair/Brown’s Britain.
Posted: 30th, July 2007 | In: Money Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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