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Most major companies in the UK report that they had been subject to economic crime in the previous two years, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey.
Some 70 per cent of major companies in the UK report that they had been subject to economic crime in the previous two years, according to the most comprehensive study ever of European fraud published by PricewaterhouseCoopers. In the UK 89 per cent of all frauds are committed by employees reflecting the higher incidence of those frauds, such as embezzlement and breach of trust, which are more likely to be committed by employees and management. The report also found that in the UK: cybercrime is the biggest fraud risk of the future with 53.5 per cent of UK organisations believing that they are at risk from cybercrime. Moreover 83 per cent of UK organisations believe that the risk from fraud would be the same of greater in the future.
Some 39 per cent of UK organisations said they had not reported frauds to the authorities. Only 15pc of UK organisations have successfully recovered more than 50pc of their losses from fraud, perhaps reflecting the higher incidence of internal frauds where the value of damages is often difficult to establish. And 62pc of UK organisations accept that it is management’s responsibility to prevent and detect fraud, compared to about 50pc across Europe. Half of UK organisations uncovered fraud through a tip-off, far more than in continental Europe where only 28pc of organisations said that fraud was detected through tip-off. This may reflect the establishment of more effective corporate governance procedures in the UK. The assessment of fraud in the UK is part of the PricewaterhouseCoopers ‘European Economic Crime Survey – 2001. See www.pwcglobal.com.
