Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Britain’s financial sector reported 3.31 million fraud cases in 2024, marking a 12% increase from the previous year, according to latest UK Finance data. The surge resulted in £1.17 billion being stolen, unchanged from 2023. Fraud accounts for 41% of all reported crime in the country. Banks prevented £1.45 billion of unauthorised fraud through advanced…
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Global business and technology leaders are already seeing benefits from the use of AI and automation, with over three-quarters (78%) reporting measurable improvements in the ability to detect fraud and manage risk after their organisation’s integration of the technology, according to research by FIS in collaboration with Oxford Economics. To combat this disharmony, businesses across…
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A car dealer from Kent who now lives in Spain has been banned from being a company director for 12 years after his company received a second £45,000 Covid Bounce Back loan it was not entitled to. Joseph Harrison was the director of South East Commercials Ltd, a used car sales dealership in Kent before…
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The Government has issued new powers to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), which will allow the DWP to recover money directly from the bank accounts of fraudsters who can repay but are wilfully gaming the system in order not to, passed an important stage in the House of Commons as it had its…
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The owner of a North London tyre shop has been banned as a director for 10 years after overstating his company’s turnover to secure a maximum-value Covid loan. Shkelzen Gashi ran Smart Tyres Services Ltd from his address on Harringay Road from 2015 to 2022. The 53-year-old claimed his company’s turnover was £250,000 when he…
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Fraud prevention service, Cifas has published its annual Fraudscape report which reveals a staggering 421,000 cases were filed to the National Fraud Database (NFD) in 2024 – a 13% increase and the highest number on record. The sharp rise is one of the largest annual increases ever observed by Cifas, underscoring the growing scale and…
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Two connected technology companies which claimed to protect people online and enhance their social media image have been shut down by the Insolvency Service following concerns they were running a direct debit scam. Manchester-based companies Affinity Technology Solutions Limited and RCSR Tech Limited were both wound-up at the High Court. Affinity claimed to offer a…
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More than two in three UK fintech companies (68%) are reporting higher fraud volumes compared with one year ago, according to new data published by Alloy. The research showed that 79% of UK fintechs say they lost at least £500,000 to fraud in the 12 months to October 2024. Two in five (38%) fintechs reported…
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New figures from Experian has found that that fraudsters deploying AI technology to combine personal information to create new identities highlighting the rise of ‘synthetic fraud’ in the UK. Analysis of confirmed fraudulent and potentially fraudulent credit applications shows that there was an increase of 60% in false identity cases in 2024 when compared to…
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A husband and wife whose furniture company went into liquidation owing customers almost £100,000 have both been banned as company directors. George and Williamina Hay were directors of DWH Trading Ltd, which sold adjustable beds and chairs, mostly to elderly and vulnerable customers, from their home address in Aberdeenshire. The company was struggling financially by…
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A Nottinghamshire construction boss who fraudulently removed more than £700,000 from four failing companies and transferred the money to his casino account has been jailed. Wesley Grainger-Smith fraudulently removed more than £702,050 from four struggling construction companies between 2014 and 2017 into his casino gaming account. Grainger-Smith was not the official director of any of…
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A Devon taxi driver who fraudulently claimed two maximum-value Covid loans by overstating his annual turnover by more than £350,000 has been jailed. Murat Dogantekin secured the Bounce Back Loans worth a combined £100,000 from two separate banks just months into the pandemic, when he was only actually entitled to just over £4,000 under the…
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A Bank business manager and his friend have been sentenced following an investigation into fraudulent accounts that helped them steal over £7.3 million. The two men from East London were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to a combined nine-and-a-half years in prison for opening bank accounts used to launder money from fraud. The sentencing follows…
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