Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
A restaurant manager has been givena suspended sentence after using Covid Bounce Back loan to buy jewellery. The Manchester-based restaurant manager fraudulently obtained two Covid loans worth £100,000. Sehrish Yasmin was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for 12 months, at Manchester Crown Court. The 32-year-old was also ordered to pay costs and compensation…
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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…
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Criminals stole £1.17 billion through unauthorised and authorised fraud in 2023, a four per cent decrease compared to 2022 according to UK Finance’s annual fraud report. Losses due to unauthorised transactions across payment cards, remote banking and cheques were £708.7 million this year, down three per cent compared to 2022. The total number of recorded…
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Fraud prevention service Cifas has officially launched its ‘Fraud Pledges 2024’ with proposals requesting that the government commit to reforms and prevention strategies that better protect communities and businesses from fraud. Fraud represents approximately 38% of all crime in England and Wales and has more than doubled in Scotland over the past nine years, recent…
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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…
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Weaknesses in some banks’ security could leave customers exposed to scammers, a new Which? investigation has found. The research found that with more people than ever before using mobile banking, criminals are increasingly viewing mobile phones as gateways to consumers’ personal finances. Which? researchers tested banking website and app security across four key criteria: login…
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A Cumbrian man who pleaded guilty to fraud, disregarding a director disqualification and breaching a bankruptcy order has been jailed. Adam Kirkbride was sentenced to four years in prison when he appeared at Newcastle Crown Court. Kirkbride, of Cobble End, Bassenthwaite, Keswick, was also further banned as a director until April 2036. The 32-year-old abused…
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Last year, fraud in banking and finance cost the UK over £1 billion, with more than £2,300 being fraudulently obtained every minute. The many forms of fraud account for over 40% of all crime in England and Wales. The UK government has stated that there needs to be a focus on stopping fraud at its…
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Fraud prevention service, Cifas has released its 2024 Fraudscape report, detailing the latest fraud data and intelligence recorded by its members during 2023. The research found that more than 374,000 cases were reported to the Cifas National Fraud Database (NFD), with members recording an incident of fraud every two minutes, preventing more than £1.8bn in…
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Uswitch has reported that consumers lost £422 million from 92,739 reported cases of fraud in the last quarter. In Quarter 4 (Q4) of 2023, consumers between the ages of 30-39 were the most likely to be the subject of fraud and cybercrime, with those aged 20-29 following closely behind. Over three quarters (76%) of fraud…
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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…
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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…
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Just over one in five (21%) of adults across UK and 14 other countries around the world were defrauded between 2021 and 2023 according to research by the Social Market Foundation (SMF), a cross-party Westminster think tank that a surveyed almost 29,000 people. The SMF surveyed 15 countries, including Japan, Singapore, Brazil, Germany, USA, Mexico…
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