New figures suggest the West Midlands is a hotbed of employee fraud.
Business advisors RSM used a Freedom of Interest request to get figures for white collar crime committed by UK workers.
It suggested there has been a 65 per cent year-on-year increase in reported cases of fraud committed by workers against their employers in the West Midlands – the worst regional figure in Britain outside of London.
The types of crime investigated included staff diverting payments to their own accounts, procurement fraud and misappropriation of assets, bribery and corruption, as well as travel and subsistence fraud.
The data from police figures shows there were 94 instances of corporate employee fraud in the region reported to police fraud and cyber-crime body Action Fraud last year, up from 57 reported incidents in 2021.
That equalled a loss of almost £7.8 million in 2022, more than triple the £2.34 million stolen through employee fraud in the region in 2021.
RSM said across the UK, the number of employee fraud cases reported last year reached 885 and increased five-fold to £227 million when compared to the year prior – putting the average loss at £256,668 per case.
Erin Sims, associate director of fraud risk services in Birmingham at RSM UK, said: “The West Midlands has experienced the most significant increase outside of London in both volume of reported incidents of employee fraud and amount of funds stolen.
“The West Midlands Police is the second largest police force in the country with fraud being the fifth most reported crime, however, the FTE serving in the Economic Crime Unit, created to investigate concerns, makes up only around 1 per cent.
“With the limited likelihood of business victims receiving a positive response through the criminal justice process, it is key for co-ordinated efforts across the region to focus on decreasing the levels of fraud as well as for businesses to focus on prevention, detection and creating a culture that encourages staff to raise concerns.”
RSM UK recommends businesses have a clear and robust anti-fraud policy for employees, with training on how to identify and report fraudulent activity.
They are also encouraged to conduct background checks when hiring new staff, including criminal and credit history checks, to identify any previous fraud-related activity, as well as ID checks.
