Half of all office fraud is in South East

WHITE-collar crime is soaring in London and the South East. Latest figures show the number of fraud cases coming to trial leapt 40% last year, a threefold increase on three years ago.

The crime wave saw 56 cases going before the courts in and around the capital, involving the loss of £166m, more than half the £330m in fraud cases nationally. A quarter of the scams were masterminded by companies' or organisations' own management.

According to the forensic accounting division of KPMG which collated the figures, larger-scale frauds continue to be dominated by organised crime gangs although about a third of the cases involved small-time hoodwinking of companies' accounts departments.

Nationwide, £180m was lost to professional criminals pulling off VAT scams, counterfeitingand tax evasion. At the other end of the scale, dozens of cases came to court in which office workers arranged payments to bogus businesses or fake colleagues or simply stole or forged company cheques.

Jeremy Outen, fraud investigation partner at KPMG, said: 'The rise in the number of cases and value of fraud is bad news for businesses across London and the South East.

'Whilst the number of super-size cases has fallen, it seems more companies than ever are falling victim to fraud.'

Outen blamed company bosses for failing to wise up. 'Simple but robust internal controls can prevent management, employees, customers and suppliers from exploiting weaknesses,' he said.