UK frauds cost £38-bn a year

Frauds in the UK cost over £38 billion a year, which is about 21 per cent higher than last year's
estimate of £30 billion, the latest annual report published by the National Fraud Authority (NFA) Thursday said.

The UK's NFA is an executive agency of the attorney general's office working to bring together a large number of counter-fraud bodies in public, private and voluntary sectors engaged in fraud prevention, and has access to key decision-makers and ministers of a range of key departments.

According to the estimates, the public sector accounts for the biggest share of losses by fraud with around 55 per cent of the total figure or £21 billion, followed by 31 per cent or £12 billion in the private sector.

Individual citizen's losses are around 10 per cent at £4 billion, while charity accounts for the
remaining 4 per cent or £1.3 billion.

Stressing the urgent need to counter fraud, NFA chief executive Bernard Herdan said it is vital all sections of the society join together to take action ''to stem the rising tide of fraud.'' ''We want to develop a stronger counter fraud culture, which helps to disrupt fraudulent activity across the UK and globally," Herdan further stated.

The minister for the cabinet office Francis Maude said: "The latest NFA estimate shows that 55 per cent of fraud - a massive £21 billion - is committed against the public sector. That's the equivalent of building 800 secondary schools, or employing over 615,000 nurses and it's a problem that we are not going to ignore. Ripping off the taxpayer will not be tolerated.''