Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Two in five (40%) SME decision-makers do not have protective measures against fraud and scamming in place, leaving them at risk of an incident or attack according to research by insights agency Opinium. The research, conducted among 500 senior decision makers at SMEs, found that this rises to 45% among SMEs in hospitality, food &…
Read more
A man who cheated taxpayers out of £50,000 by using the funds from a Covid loan to replace his car has been sentenced for fraud. Insolvency Service Investigations found that James Todd applied for and secured a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan for a fictitious business he named Pro Detailing, inventing a turnover of £255,000 to…
Read more
A fraudster who illegally secured a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan designed to support businesses during the Covid pandemic has been handed a suspended sentence. Rian O’Keeffe, 28, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, when he appeared at Southwark Crown Court. O’Keeffe, of Lisgar Terrace, Hammersmith, is also subject to a…
Read more
An Accountant who took out three Bounce Back Loans has been given a 12-year director ban by the Insolvency Service and must repay £75,000. Dion Mailich took out three Bounce Back Loans for his business – despite being only entitled to one. The Accountant applied for loans totalling £125,000 – five times the amount his…
Read more
A man from Milton Keynes who committed approximately £867,299 of fraud has been sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court to 7 years 10 months in prison, following an investigation by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), a specialist police unit funded by the banking industry. Zaheer Abbas, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud…
Read more
More than half (59%) of the regulated firms that take on new business clients are leaving themselves exposed to serious red flags by not completing critical verification checks on the people running the business according to research by SmartSearch. The research found that business said that they do not always carry out essential checks, despite…
Read more
Companies House has announced new and enhanced powers to improve the quality and reliability of its data and tackle misuse of the companies register. The first measures under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCT Act) came into force on Monday 4th March 2024. Changes introduced include: Greater powers to query information and…
Read more
A London-based builder sentenced for Covid loan abuse after an investigation by the Insolvency Service. The self-employed builder from Hounslow overstated income to claim £50,000 Bounce Back Loan then lost it in scam crypto investment scheme. Lukasz Nowak a self-employed builder from Hounslow, West London, was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment, suspended for two years,…
Read more
Criminals stole £42.6 million from businesses through authorised push payment (APP) fraud in the first six months of 2023 according to new data from UK Finance . The research found that nearly one in five small business oweners (17%) participants could not always spot a scam. The data comes from results of the quiz, designed…
Read more
A new report by Lenvi Riskfactor has found that almost nine out of ten (89%) European business leaders have noted an increase in fraudulent activity against their businesses in the past year; with more than eight in ten (81%) expecting a continued increase through the current financial year (2023/24). This issue is compounded by the…
Read more
The retail industry has seen a bigger rise in suspected digital fraud attempts coming from the UK than any other industry in the first half of 2023 based on the recent insights from TransUnion. The data shows that the rate of suspected digital fraud, when a consumer or a fraudster is in the UK during…
Read more
The Government has paid out £7.39bn to settle bad Covid-era loans, with £2.23bn more in arrears and £750m in default. With data showing that the Government paid out £1.2bn to settle pandemic emergency loans that had gone bad in Q2, Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy figures suggest taxpayers could ending up paying £11.5bn…
Read more
New research by UHY Hacker Young has shown that the number of ‘dawn raids’ undertaken by HMRC has increased 36% in the past year, from 458 in 2021/22 to 623 in 2022/23 HMRC ‘dawn raids’ are unannounced searches used to gather evidence for possible prosecution for tax fraud or for furlough fraud (HMRC is responsible…
Read more