Police Officer accused of theft from Northumbria Police
07 Aug 2024A Police Constable has denied stealing £12,888.22 belonging to the Northumbria Police Authority, while in their employ between 1 September 2022 and 1 October 2023. At Newcastle Crown Court on 24 July, PC Nicola Owen was told that she must go to trial in January 2026. Prosecutors argued that the allegation was so serious it […]
Jail for employee who embezzled more than £1 million
23 Jul 2024A former employee of Aberdeen City Council who pleaded guilty to embezzlement has been jailed for four years and faces confiscation proceedings to recover the money he stole. Michael Paterson started working for the Council in 1988 and was promoted to the position of Council Tax and Recovery Team Leader. In this role, he was […]
Fraudsters jailed for theft from tax payers
16 Jul 2024The lavish lifestyle of a Kent couple, and the evidence investigators found, bore witness to benefit fraud on a huge scale. Wiktoria Packowska and her boyfriend, Wojciech Kowalski, created multiple false identities and made more than 80 false claims across a three-year period totalling £700,000. They were apprehended by Border Force officers in June 2020 […]
When deals go bad
16 Jul 2024You’ve negotiated hard, worked until midnight too many times and the ink is barely dry on the contract when the litigation solicitors get a phone call. What could have gone wrong? Although buying and selling companies is very much the domain of specialised corporate finance advisors, the experience of litigators and forensic accountants can be […]
Beware of invoice scams
03 Jul 2024Recent research suggests that businesses across the UK are being scammed out of millions through invoice and mandate fraud with more than £50 million being stolen in 2023. Separate research suggests that 31 per cent of UK businesses have been the victim of invoice fraud over the past year and, of these, only 39 per […]
Man accused of fraud denies wrongdoing
01 Jul 2024A man accused of two counts of fraud by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has denied swindling investors in a trading scheme, which resulted in alleged losses of almost £2 million. According to the FCA, Lee Maggs from Sittingbourne, Kent, hid “significant losses” from investors as part of a £2.67 million ($3.33 million) scheme trading […]
Mike Lynch cleared of fraud charges in UK
27 Jun 2024Former CEO of Autonomy, Mike Lynch, has been cleared in the US of all fraud charges arising from the $11 billion sale of the company to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011. Dr Lynch, who faced multiple counts of fraud, said he was “elated” and “grateful to the jury for their attention to the facts” throughout the […]
Lengthy investigation brings fraudsters to justice
25 Jun 2024A lengthy investigation by the Insolvency Service has resulted in five people being sentenced for their involvement in a £500,000 fraud and money laundering scheme. Ringleader and convicted fraudster, Neale Rothera, set up businesses that claimed to sell furniture and carpets, and used them as vehicles to commit the offences. The other four companies, ostensibly […]
Mike Lynch defends himself in US Autonomy trial
04 Jun 2024Mike Lynch, co-founder of tech business Autonomy, has been defending himself in court in San Francisco against charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy relating to his company’s acquisition deal with Hewlett Packard. Autonomy, which was founded in 1996, grew to be one of the UK’s biggest companies and was bought by the American […]
Deepfake scam costs Arup £20 million
30 May 2024UK giant design and engineering firm Arup has revealed it was targeted by an artificial intelligence-created deepfake scam that cost it HK$200 million (£20 million). A “deepfake” refers to a type of synthetic media where a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else’s likeness, typically using advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence […]
Car dealership fraudsters jailed
23 May 2024A gang of fraudsters used stolen identities to set up a fake car dealership scam that netted the criminals almost £500,000. The seven-strong gang, led by Shahid Mohammad, created a bogus recruitment firm to steal the identities, which were then used as ‘Directors’ of fake car dealerships. The fraudsters then used addresses of vacant premises […]
Robust processes needed to prevent employee fraud
15 May 2024According to a recent survey by Cifas there has been a marked increase in new recruits committing dishonest conduct against their employers. The Cifas Insider Threat Database (ITD) for dishonest conduct against their employer found that 38 per cent of those reported have been in their position less than a year – up from 21 […]
Probate Manager jailed for fraud and money laundering
10 May 2024A Probate Manager, and the friend who aided and abetted her criminal activity over 13 years, have been jailed for defrauding and laundering more than £634,000 from the estates of deceased clients. While working at two different law firms in Tamworth, Laurna Porter took funds destined for charities or friends and relatives from 23 different […]
Serious charge aimed at former SNP Chief Executive
02 May 2024Former Scottish National Party (SNP) Chief Executive Peter Murrell has been re-arrested and charged in connection with alleged embezzlement of Party funds. Mr Murrell was first arrested ‘as a suspect’ in April last year but was then released without charge. At the same time, a £110,000 campervan was seized by police from outside his mother’s […]
Massive rise in company directors disqualified for Covid load abuse
24 Apr 2024According to the latest Insolvency Service figures, 80 per cent more company directors were banned for abusing Covid loan schemes in 2023-24 than in the previous year. This amounts to more than 800 individuals who were banned on average for more than 10 years. As a spokesman for the Insolvency Service commented, the agency is […]
Apprentice star fraud allegations “destroys decades of work in minutes”
12 Apr 2024Former Apprentice contestant Raj Dhonota has spoken out about a recent year-long police investigation that finally put paid to claims of fraudulent behaviour during bankruptcy. Mr Dhonota starred in the first-ever series of the popular TV series aired in 2005, four years after the businessman was first declared bankrupt. He was fired by Lord Sugar in week […]
Operation Henhouse leads to record numbers of arrests
10 Apr 2024A nationwide fraud investigation, called Operation Henhouse, has led to a “record” number of arrests for fraud, with a 52 per cent increase in the number of arrests that the operation achieved in the previous year. This multi-agency initiative ran across February and March this year and has led to 438 arrests, the freezing of […]
How has forensic accounting changed since the pandemic?
08 Apr 2024The first COVID-19 national lockdown is now four years ago. Around that unprecedented time, professional advisers were concerned about whether their business would survive the lockdowns, not least as it was no longer possible to meet face to face with clients or referrers. Since then, we’ve seen the litigation market change, but more so in […]
British businessman cleared of embezzlement and tax fraud
04 Apr 2024Doug Barrowman, the husband of disgraced Peer Michelle Mone, has been cleared of any wrongdoing in his Spanish embezzlement and tax fraud trial. Mr Barrowman had been accused of misappropriation and tax evasion by the Spanish courts along with six other British businessmen. The charges related to the purchase in 2008 of a cable factory […]
Audit reveals fraud amounting to almost £320,000
25 Mar 2024Three men who fraudulently supplied a company with poultry worth £318,347 have been convicted of committing fraud and acquiring criminal property. Two of the men, Darren Williams and Elliot Smith, worked at the 2 Sisters Food Group and supplied the meat to Townsend Poultry. According to an investigation, prompted by an audit, more than 80 […]
Restrictions to punish Covid loan misconduct
19 Mar 2024The Insolvency Service has secured bankruptcy restrictions as part of ongoing work to tackle Covid loan misconduct. According to a recent press statement, Bankruptcy Restrictions Orders (BROs) and Bankruptcy Restrictions Undertakings (BRUs) have been secured against individuals who falsely applied for Bounce Back Loans (BBLs) during the pandemic. These restrictions prevent individuals whose conduct has […]
Money launderers jailed for more than 26 years
11 Mar 2024Six members of an organised crime gang have been jailed for more than 26 years in total for sending £26 million of ‘dirty money’ to Dubai as part of a large-scale money laundering scheme. The court heard that the gang members posed as directors of seven separate companies set up purely to launder the cash. […]
Investigation uncovered ‘too much’ evidence
06 Mar 2024The BBC recently revealed that once Post Office subpostmasters and subpostmistresses began legal action against their former employer, a secret investigation into the cash anomalies at branches, suddenly stopped. The investigation, which began in 2016, looked into how and why cash accounts on the Horizon IT system were so inaccurate. It looked through 17 years […]
Trump’s documentary evidence proved fraud
26 Feb 2024The conclusion of the trial into former President Trump’s ‘art of the deal’ approach to business ended this month with him being handed a $354.9 million fine and a three-year ban on serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or entity. In addition, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, the former […]
Fall in Insolvency Service prosecutions
21 Feb 2024According to official figures, charges brought by the Insolvency Service against company Directors fell from 174 in the year to March 2022 to just 95 last year, a decrease of 42 per cent. This is surprising, as there was a rise in fraud and error by company Directors during the pandemic, with HM Revenue & […]