Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
A Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report has warned that HMRC’s ‘unambitious’ plans for recovering £6 billion in Covid-19 support payments that were paid out through fraud or mistakes could lead to the Government writing off a large sum of taxpayers’ money. In the report, Parliament’s cross-party Public Accounts Committee says that HMRC’s unambitious plans” for…
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The Government’s Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries has announced that fraud will be made a priority offence as part of the Online Safety Bill. Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said” This government said it would legislate to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online while enshrining free speech, and that’s exactly what…
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The Treasury Committee has called for additional Government action to combat fraud and scammers as it publishes its report on Economic Crime. The report, which was unanimously agreed by the cross-party Committee of MPs, urges the Government to legislate against online fraudulent adverts and seriously consider whether online giants should reimburse those who fall victim…
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Data from Konica Minolta has revealed that around one in nine (90% ) of SME businesses are risking significant fines and reputational damage due to potentially fatal weaknesses in their IT and data management and compliance. The data security vulnerabilities varied from data protection issues (such as insecure storage of financial details) to unsecured personal…
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UK Finance is warning UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to be alert for scams targeting their companies. As many businesses start the new year with people working from home, fraudsters will try to take advantage of opportunities to steal money where firms might be working outside of their normal processes. Criminals often attempt to impersonate a chief executive, senior manager, or supplier to try and convince staff to make an urgent payment…
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A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) says the Government only put basic anti-fraud checks on the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) for small firms once more than £28 billion had already been paid out. The British Business Bank stepped up to deliver the Bounce Back Loan Scheme on behalf of Government to ensure…
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A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) says the Government only put basic anti-fraud checks on the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) for small firms once more than £28 billion had already been paid out. Checks to ensure that a company was not applying for more than one bounce back loan were not put…
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A recent white paper published by Themis and Encompass Corporation, the leading provider of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) software HAS revealed new insight into the ‘cost’ of not adhering to financial crime compliance. The whitepaper, titled Financial Crime Compliance: The Cost of Getting it Wrong, analysed recent case studies and 2020…
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HMRC has ramped up efforts to recoup £1 billion from fraudulent or incorrect furlough pay-outs, with more than 26,500 investigations into potentially fraudulent pandemic support claims launched over the past eight months. The level of fraud and error in the benefit system almost doubled during the pandemic from what was already the highest rate since…
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The winners of the 2021 Credit & Collection Technology Awards have been announced following a live in-person event yesterday (Thursday 4th November) at the Midland Hotel in Manchester. The awards are the flagship event for innovational technological professionals working in credit and collections and the fifth annual event honoured the UK’s technological innovators, celebrating outstanding…
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New research from Mazars has shown that prosecutions of company directors for fraud tripled over the past year amid a crackdown on coronavirus loan scams, with 122 company directors convicted of crimes during the year to the end of September — a rise from 40 during the previous 12 months. The total points to a…
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Three directors have been banned following investigations which found that nearly £100,000 worth of Bounce Back loans had been inappropriately applied for, or misused following investigations by the Insolvency Service. The Bounce Back Loan (BBL) scheme ran to March 2021 and provided loans of up £50,000 to help businesses survive the impact of the Covid-19…
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The Build to Rent sector is being targeted by fraudsters with a 364% rise in fraudulent tenant applications in the past six months, according to data from tenant due diligence and guarantee firm Homeppl. To correlate with this upward trend, the detection of fraud in this space has seen a significant increase in value, meaning…
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