Fraud Intelligence

The new British Labour Government is planning to tackle the UK£10 billion (US$13 billion) that the UK loses annually to social security fraud and error by empowering the department for work and pensions (DWP) to requirebanks and other financial institutions to share data that may indicate benefit overpayments.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, surely, but even if sufficient, an inability to communicate may negate its benefit, or worse, undermine a jury's confidence in the person who has it, and so work to the detriment of the case they were intended to support. Keith Nuthalltalks to Mark Anderson, who has presented evidence in court many times, about best practice and pitfalls around the use of expert witnesses.

The European Union (EU) will have an anti-fraud commissioner in the new European Commission set to take over on 1 December, the first since 2014. Polish Commissioner designate Piotr Serafin, currently acting permanent representative of Poland to the EU, has been given the role in the second-term team of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. He will hold the new Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration portfolio.

It takes a thief to catch a thief, perhaps, but can a reformed fraudster ever be trusted - should they be? Keith Nuthall spoke to one and sought the opinion of some experienced investigators.

The amount of money stolen from British bank accounts through fraud dropped 1.5% in H1 2024 year-on-year, according to banking and finance trade association UK Finance.

Competition for jobs may be fierce but technology, too, is enabling candidates to rewrite their history of academic and professional study. Paul Cochrane looks into the cause and effect of qualification inflation.

"It is highly likely that limited company structures within the UK are widely used to facilitate many types of serious and organised criminality," according to the first ever strategic intelligence assessment from Britain's corporate registration agency, Companies House.