Workplace Fraud Investigations

Employee fraud can be an expensive liability. Workplace fraud can be committed by anyone in any department, but it’s more common in senior positions or those employed in the accounting or finance department.

There are many types of workplace fraud. Most common fraud schemes fall into the following categories:

• Asset misappropriation
• Account fraud
• Data theft
• Bribery and corruption
• Payroll fraud
• Vendor mismanagement and fraud

The ACFE (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners) and other studies have determined the following statistics about the most common offenders:

• Common offenders are males aged between 35 and 60
• Over 70%, are committed from within the company
• Individuals in senior-level positions are more likely to offend
• Individuals employed for more than 6 years are the highest proportion of offenders with over 40%, compared to 6% who have been employed for less than 1 year
• More than one individual usually involved – 60% of frauds involved more than one employee
• The most common motivation is personal gain (60%), followed by greed (36%)

What Can You Do to Prevent Workplace Fraud?

To prevent and detect employee fraud it is necessary to:

• Separate account setup and approval – it is important to assign an individual for each task
• Implement tight internal controls, especially with regard to accounting
• Conduct random audits of departments on a regular basis, more frequently of accounts payable and accounts receivable
• Employ or assign an external contractor to review departments on a regular basis, more frequently for accounts
• Rotate duties of employees where possible, fresh eyes may enable any issues to be flagged
• Make it mandatory for employees to take vacation time – any issues may be located when the relief worker takes over their role for the short term

How Can We Help You?

If you suspect that fraud has been perpetrated, our specialists can help assess how and why this may have taken place in order to prevent further breaches.

Get in touch today

Alternatively, if you are aware of ongoing fraud or require an investigation into an individual you believe has defrauded your company, Global Investigations can help to gather evidence to bring these individuals to justice.

Please contact a member of our team on 0208 287 7770 to discuss how we can help.

See also: 
 Gardening leave absence > background checks> 
covert surveillance