Page 32 - PWM2023_SEPTEMBER

TECHNOLOGY REPORT

Don’t let the bast**ds in

ardly a day goes by without a warning or tims were individuals rather than organisations or busi-
headline about scams. Employee frauds, nesses.
push payment, or errant suppliers short-
There’s no way to changing customers, the level of activity is But having said that, Andrew Northage, a partner in
sugar coat this. Fraud rising, despite the actions of authorities to the Regulatory & Compliance team at Walker Morris still
considers fraud to be a significant threat in corporate
can be devastating Hstamp out the problem. Back in April 2020, environments. He cites the UK findings of PwC’s Global
Printweek reported on Sarah Cockburn, an account man-
for companies, and in ager for Glasgow printing company, James McVicar Economic Crime Survey 2022 which “showed that 64%
some cases can lead Printers, between January 2013 and July 2019. During that of businesses had experienced fraud, corruption or other
to insolvency. time, she used the company’s systems to make 799 pay- economic/financial crime in the previous two years, up
ments totalling £239,207 to bank accounts in her name. quite significantly from 56% in 2020”.
Cockburn was only caught after an investigation by the He also refers to BDO’s recent FraudTrack 2023 report,
Words by company into a missing British Gas payment of £28,000. which notes that the total monetary value of reported
Adam Bernstein As a result of the loss, the company had to sell its main fraud in the UK in 2021 – £10bn – was skewed by cases
printing press and freeze salaries. Some staff left the com- around government Covid-19 support schemes. And a
pany as a result and could not be replaced at the time. recently published National Audit Office report, Tackling
Owner James McVicar had to invest £70,000 from his fraud and corruption against government, said that the
private pension and premium bonds and released government’s annual reports and accounts estimate fraud
£60,000 in capital from another company he owned to against the taxpayer rose from £5.5bn in total over the
support the business. two years before the pandemic to £21bn in total over the
A lot of focus recently has been on fraudulent activity two years since the start of the pandemic. He says that
committed against individuals. In its November 2022 “HMRC expects to have recovered only £1.1bn by the
report, Fighting Fraud: Breaking the Chain, the House of time it winds down its Taxpayer Protection Taskforce”.
Lords Fraud Act 2006 and Digital Fraud Committee said Further, Northage details that the Insolvency Service
that, in the previous 13-month period, 89% of fraud vic- announced mid-April that 459 directors were disqualified

30 PrintWeek MENA September 2023 www.printweekmena.com