The volume of North West fraud cases over £100k heard in Courts in 2022 was down 18%, from 34 to 28 year-on-year, according to the latest KPMG Fraud Barometer.
The overall value of these cases also fell significantly by 71% from £83.9m to £24.1m, the survey found.
As with the previous year, the victim group that suffered the most cases of alleged fraud across the region were commercial businesses, with seven cases in 2022, although this did mark a fall from 12 cases in 2021. Government was the joint most common victim by volume in 2022, as they were also the victim of seven cases, down from eight cases in 2021. Embezzlement, which includes theft from company or client accounts, was the most common type of North West fraud case, accounting for the largest share of fraud value (33%).
A 58-year-old man from Oldham set up several companies, and installed energy-efficient home improvements in order to submit fraudulent VAT repayment claims.
Invoices were falsified and altered to claim a total of £593k.
Damien Margetson, Head of Forensic at KPMG in the North West, commented:
“It’s encouraging to see a sizeable drop in both the volume and value of North West fraud cases in 2022. However, corporate fraud continued to rear its ugly head, with rogue employees abusing their positions of trust to steal money from their employers, clients and other partners. Despite the fall in related cases year-on-year, it’s vital that the region’s business leaders are taking the urgent action necessary to ensure they have the safeguards in place that can detect and prevent these crimes.”
Nationally The total value of alleged fraud cases £100,000 or above heard in UK courts increased by 151% from £444.7m in 2021 to £1.12bn in 2022, according to data released in KPMG UK’s latest Fraud Barometer.
The figure for 2022 is similar to pre-pandemic values which saw a total value of £1.1bn for alleged fraud cases heard in 2019.
Figures from KPMG UK’s Fraud Barometer released today, found that despite the increase in total value of reported fraud cases heard in 2022, the volume of cases fell by 27%. A total of 219 alleged fraud cases reached the courts in 2022, compared to 298 in 2021.
While volume of alleged fraud £100,000 or above decreased and total value increased, the value was largely driven by five cases with a value of £50m or above which were heard in UK courts in 2022. These cases amounted to a total value of £648m, more than half the total value of all the fraud cases heard. This is a stark contrast to 2021 which saw no reported cases over the value of £50m.
The Fraud Barometer also noted that a number of other reported cases, involving significant sums, were reportedly settled so do not appear within the figures but reinforce the trend that the value of alleged fraud is significantly up on prior periods.
Fraud cases against financial institutions halved in 2022, with only 16 cases being heard compared to 32 in 2021. Despite this, the value of fraud committed against financial institutions in 2022 increased dramatically by 2204% to £609.2m.
