Public Sector Fraud Authority chief also discusses getting the right work-life balance and the rising fraud threat.

What was your highlight of 2024?

Bringing the government counter fraud profession’s Counter Fraud Leadership Programme to life. Ever since I started leading fraud teams 15 years ago, I’ve felt the need for an offer for those leading the fraud response to help them do their jobs – based on the learnings of those who have gone before! It’s taken a few years, with the pandemic in between, to bring this from an idea into a living, breathing year-long qualification with an immersive week at the end. To see it come to life, for it to exist and for participants to be so positive, has been inspirational. An example of something being better than you imagined and being so proud of everyone who worked to bring it to life.

https://www.civilserviceworld.com//in-depth/article/mark-cheeseman-on-achieving-a-15yearlong-aspiration-and-getting-the-right-worklife-balance

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has brought criminal charges against the partner of a wealth management firm, claiming he transferred £64m from client accounts, using the money to buy racehorses, residential and commercial property and to fund a nightclub business.

The FCA is charging John Dance, principal partner at WealthTek LLP — formerly known as Versus Asset Management — with nine criminal offences, including multiple counts of fraud and money laundering.

https://corporate-adviser.com/fca-charges-wealth-manager-who-bought-racehorses-and-property-with-client-funds/

Fraudsters have stolen more than £100m from the NHS in the past five years, exploiting weaknesses in IT systems to commit crimes ranging from stealing credit card data to hacking supplier emails, The Independent can reveal.

Scams have cost the NHS the equivalent of funding more than 2,000 senior nurses’ salaries for a year or providing over 20,000 rounds of radiotherapy for cancer patients.

Experts warned that the “inexcusable” losses, revealed as part of an Independent investigation, were ones the already overstretched health service can “ill afford”, calling for the NHS to protect itself better against fraud.

In total, the cost of fraud to the NHS in England was £101m in the five years to 2023/24.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/fraudsters-steal-100m-nhs-scammers-135850888.html/

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is appealing for information from the public in relation to a complex timeshare services scheme it believes was operated by an organised crime network.

This new SFO investigation is being announced after it intercepted suspected ongoing criminal activity.

In August, the SFO arrested a key suspect at Manchester Airport and searched his home address, going on to conduct four arrests of suspected accomplices and conduct three raids of properties across England the following month. The SFO was assisted by the National Crime Agency, Greater Manchester Police and Hertfordshire Constabulary in these operations.

It is suspected the companies cold called members of the public offering exit and/or compensation from timeshare or holiday clubs for an upfront fee between January 2018 and September 2024. No services are understood to have ever been provided in most cases.

People who purchased these services are then believed to have been contacted again and pressured into paying another upfront fee to recover their money on the basis that it was fraudulent.

https://www.wired-gov.net/wg/news.nsf/articles/public+appeal+for+information+on+organised+crime+network+13122024111000?open

Dr Gerald Martin Smith, currently in prison for Covid loan fraud, has been imprisoned for an additional 13 months for obstructing the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) from seizing his properties on behalf of the taxpayer.

The SFO uncovered that Smith sought to obstruct the confiscation of a flat by arranging for an acquaintance, London-based ophthalmologist Dr Robert Morris, to transfer ownership of his Bloomsbury property to a British Virgin Island’s company called Minardi Investments Ltd that Smith secretly controlled.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/convicted-fraudster-handed-fifth-prison-sentence

Effective data sharing between organisations and across different digital sectors is an important factor in preventing data-enabled scams and fraud.

The UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) do not prevent you from sharing personal information where it is appropriate to do so, or from taking steps to prevent harm.

This advice is aimed at private sector organisations across the digital economy such as financial services, telecommunications and digital platforms that want to share personal information with each other to support scam and fraud mitigation efforts.

Our role is to help and encourage organisations to carry out this data sharing in a confident, responsible and compliant way. That includes following the principles of the UK GDPR as well as ensuring that you respect people’s information rights.

The ICO continues to engage with private and public sector organisations to support efforts to prevent people being harmed from scams and fraud.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/data-sharing/sharing-personal-information-when-preventing-detecting-and-investigating-scams-and-frauds/

Almost double the amount has been paid out to people who report suspected tax evasion. While the amounts given to whistleblowers are discretionary in the UK and not on par with the more lucrative system used in the USA, data shows that HMRC paid out nearly £1 million (£978,256) to people who provided actionable intelligence on tax fraud in 2023/24, up from £508,500 the previous year.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/hmrc-pay-tax-evasion-tip-125701958.html/

“It’s concerning to see yet another rise in fraud and scams cases coming to our service,” said Abby Thomas, chief executive and chief Ombudsman of the FOS.

The Financial Ombudsman Service has released new data showing that complaints about fraud and scams are at record highs.

Between July and September this year, the Ombudsman received 73,692 overall complaints, significantly higher than the 46,716 cases it received over the same period last year.

https://www.digit.fyi/uk-scam-and-fraud-complaints-reach-record-highs/

The Charity Commission has opened 603 investigations relating to fraud over the last year, its latest figures show.

It has also launched an additional 99 probes into charities hit by cybercrime issues.

The figures are for the period November 2023 and October 2024, which also reveal it received 264 serious incident reports relating to fraud.

To coincide with the release of these latest figures the regulator has announced it has published fresh guidance to protect charities from fraud and cyber-crime.

https://www.charitytimes.com/ct/Charity-regulator-launched-more-than-600-fraud-investigations-over-the-last-year.php

The scale, sophistication, and impact of corporate fraud have reached unprecedented levels worldwide.

Interpol’s 2024 Global Financial Fraud Assessment reports that “financial fraud has increased and diversified significantly [and] represents a pervasive, global threat.” Even more sobering is the expectation that the “magnitude of financial fraud [will] grow in tandem with technological advancements and the expansion of virtual services across the globe.” With Nasdaq estimating that at least $3.1 trillion in illicit funds flowed through the global financial system in 2023, even the most diligent organizations find themselves impacted.