“Fraud costing UK’s economy £193 billion per annum” reveals Annual Fraud Indicator 2016
According to a new report, the annual cost of fraud in the UK could be as high as £193 billion per annum. This assertion dwarfs previous estimates produced by the UK Government which put the figure at around £50 billion back in 2013. The Annual Fraud Indicator 2016 has been produced by the UK Fraud Costs Measurement Committee (UKFCMC) with support from Experian and PKF Littlejohn, and is based on comprehensive research conducted by the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Counter Fraud Studies.
The UKFCMC has revised and renewed research undertaken by the Government up to 2013. It reveals the staggering true cost of fraud – an average of more than £3,900 per adult in the UK, with losses taking place at a staggering rate of £6,000 per second.
The private sector has been under the biggest attack from fraudsters, with both SMEs and large-scale enterprises losing an estimated total of £144 billion each year. By far the biggest source of fraud for these businesses relates to procurement, which totals an enormous £127 billion. Procurement fraud includes crimes such as the submission of false invoices or the awarding of business contracts in exchange for bribes.