Recently released figures show that Fraud is costing the British economy £30bn a year, or £621 for every person in the country.
The National Fraud Authority (NFA) released the figures which were double the previous estimate of £13bn, which hadn’t taken into account the total financial loss resulting from fraud as much of it remains undetected or unreported.
The public sector is the most hard hit sector of fraud with around 58 per cent of all fraud against it, which includes £15.2bn of tax fraud and £1.1bn of benefit fraud.
Almost a third of fraud (31 per cent) is committed against companies and the remaining 12 per cent is against members of the public, the report found.
Breaking down the private sector fraud reveals the the financial service industry recorded the highest loss to fraudsters, estimated to be £3.8bn, with £1bn in mortgage fraud and over £2bn lost in insurance fraud. Fraud in plastic cards, online banking and cheques comprised most of the remainder.
Credit and debit card fraud is estimated to be 0.1 per cent of total transactions.
The NFA’s chief executive, Bernard Herdan,  said ”With this vital information we can develop clearer priorities to prevent, detect and deter fraudsters. We will use the data to help identify those areas of fraud that cause the most harm to the UK economy. Reducing the cost of fraud is important but even more significantly I want to stop more people from becoming victims.”
Baroness Scotland, the attorney general, urged more organisations to report the money they lose to fraud. She said: “We now have a much more accurate fraud picture which is crucial so we can better target fraudsters.”
Mike Bowron, City of London Police commissioner and the lead on fraud for the Association of Chief Police Officers, added: “We always believed that the true cost of fraud could be much higher than previous estimates. It is vital that we ensure that the methodology used to measure the cost of fraud on the UK economy is as up to date and as comprehensive as is possible.”
Tags: British Economy, Fraud, National Fraud Authority, NFA
