January 2016
Focus on Fraud
UK losing over £98 billion to fraud Source: University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Counter Fraud Studies and accountancy firm, PKF Littlejohn February 2015
Fraud rises 10% in a year According to figures published on the 16th October 2015, in the past year there has been a 9.4% increase in fraud cases referred to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) with around 600,000 cases being referred. However, due to the NFIB only receiving information on fraud where there is actionable intelligence on the crime, the true scale of fraud is likely to be much higher. Over the past year the NFIB, part of the City of London Police, disrupted 4,000 websites, bank accounts and phone lines, and helped prevent fraud to the tune of £369 million. The majority of fraud being referred by the NFIB affects the bank and credit card industry which over the past year has seen an increase of almost 10%.
Our aim is to help our clients minimise their fraud risks through robust policies, procedures and review processes. The purpose of this newsletter is to draw your attention to and give you an overview of recent cases of fraud that have been in the press, to therefore help you identify potential fraudulent activity that could be occurring within your business.
Britons face '8 scam calls a second' It has been claimed that since 2010 around 3.5 million Britons have fallen victim to telephone fraud. This may be due to a number of reasons, but most worryingly is the development of increasingly sophisticated techniques used by criminals to con money out of their victims.
On average, around eight scam calls are made every second. According to the Money Advice Service (MAS), this equates to more than 6 in 10 people receiving a suspicious phone call in the last 12 months, and more than 4 in 10 targeted in the last month alone. Worryingly, the amount of money extracted through phone fraud has doubled in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period last year. Phone scammers generally claim to be calling from familiar companies and organisations - such as banks, utility firms, suppliers or the police before trying to con money or information out of their victims. In the past year, almost 1 in 20 adults received a scam call that came from
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Theft of controlled drugs A nurse with an “exemplary” record stole controlled drugs and apparently injected himself with a potentially fatal dose while on duty at a Leeds hospital, a court heard. Father-of-two Jordan Thomas’s life had gone off the rails after a split with his wife, Leeds Crown Court heard. Thomas, 29, took four vials of painkilling drugs from a secure cabinet while he was working a night shift at St James’s Hospital on November 2 last year. Thomas, who has no previous convictions, admitted stealing class ‘A’ painkiller oxycodone and class ‘C’ painkiller Midazolam. Sentencing Thomas to an 18 month community order and 180 hours unpaid work, Recorder Kate Tulk told him: “You previously had an exemplary record as a nurse.” After the sentencing hearing, Suzanne Hinchliffe, deputy chief executive and chief nurse at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Immediately following this incident last November we restricted Jordan Thomas from working. “The individual has not been in work since the incident. We reported the incident to the police and referred the case to the Nursing and Midwifery Council who are taking action and have suspended him from practice. “I would like to stress that no patients came to harm as a result of his actions.” Source: Yorkshire Evening Post – October 2015
the same number as the organisation they were trying to impersonate. This is known as 'telephone spoofing', in which scammers use software to mimic the caller ID number of an organisation, exploiting the trust that victims traditionally place in a specific telephone number, such as from their bank. The 'no hang up scam' is another popular technique employed, where the criminal tries to gain the victim's trust by asking them to call the telephone number on the back of their debit or credit card. Rather than hang up they keep the line open, spoof a dial tone and the fraudster's accomplice then 'answers' and impersonates whoever the victim thinks they are trying to call.
Working whilst sick within the NHS Nurse Mary was off sick from work, but she was not too ill to go to the local supermarket. It was what she did there that was the problem: she walked straight past the aisles of food and drink and into the back office, where she worked with a private GP as a locum nurse for the staff and management. In a year’s absence because of a back-related medical issue, Mary had assisted with fitness tests for the Ministry of Defence, as well as working at a local private hospital. During all this time, she was receiving sick pay from her employer – effectively being paid twice. The health body not only paid Mary’s salary but also had to pay for locum cover for her post. When Mary was confronted, she claimed not to know that she wasn’t allowed to work elsewhere, but the judge didn’t agree. Mary lost her job, gained a criminal conviction, had to appear before a professional disciplinary committee and was ordered to pay back the money she had stolen. (Based on a real case) Don’t let NHS fraudsters steal money meant for patient care.
What could have prevented this fraud?
Mary’s manager had not followed health body procedures for managing long-term absences. These were based around concern for staff welfare and would also have identified that Mary did not really have a condition which made work impossible. When Mary began working at the health body, the sickness policy was not explained to her at induction – she hadn’t been told specifically that she could not work elsewhere, even though it was plain that she could not. In this case, clear rules that were properly explained could have deterred a long-term fraud that squandered NHS resources.
For more information on Gateway Assure fraud services please contact: Rowan Underwood, Assurance Assistant – rowan.underwood@gatewayassure.com Copyright © Gateway Assure 2015 registered in England and Wales - MCH House, Bailey Drive, Gillingham, ME8 0PZ - Company number: 08232033