Value of serious fraud cases in Scotland tops £1m

  • Published
Worried woman with a bank card and phoneImage source, Getty Images

More than £1m worth of high value fraud court cases were heard during the first six months of this year, according to KPMG.

The study found the total value of fraud cases appearing in Scottish courts was £1.2m.

This includes Avril Jones, convicted for the murder of Margaret Fleming and fraudulently claiming £182,000 in benefits by pretending she was alive.

The value of fraud cases has fallen compared to the same period last year.

Accountancy firm KPMG's "fraud barometer" report covers major court cases involving sums of more than £100,000.

Four cases were heard in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Paisley in the first half of 2019, including Ian Brash, from East Lothian, who pleaded guilty after stealing more than £350,000 from the Dr Robert Malcolm Trust while he was a trustee of the charity, which provided financial support to medical students.

Prosecutors are now seeking more than £1.5m from the retired architect through the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Graham Cochran, forensic director at KPMG in Scotland, said: "The latest data shows that people in positions of trust are continuing to abuse their authority. You need to recognise that fraud isn't just an online or external threat and you should be on your guard."

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
The KPMG study shows an increase in online serious fraud cases

Across the UK, more than £319m of alleged fraud was alleged in cases in the courts in the first half of 2019, down from £345m in the same period last year.

The KPMG study recorded a number of cases in which the commercialisation of cyber crime had been a factor - with criminals advertising their services on the so-called dark web.

The data also recorded a 57% increase in the number of "account takeover" cases reaching court in the first half of the year where digital scammers used a range of techniques, such as email and text messages, to get hold of personal data that then enabled them to take over bank and credit card accounts.

In one case, a Tyneside man who was the UK front of a scam conducted in India was jailed for 28 months at Newcastle Crown Court.

The fraud involved online scammers who fleeced vulnerable computer users out of hundreds of thousands of pounds by pretending to help them fix bogus viruses or by hacking attacks on their computers.

Victims, many of them elderly, were panicked into contacting the fraudsters after messages informing them their computers had been infected either popped up on screen or were played through speakers.

'Worrying move'

Roy Waligora, KPMG UK head of investigations, said: "We are noting a worrying move from criminals simply hacking as a means to an end to being industrialised personal data brokers on the dark web.

"As our digital footprints get larger, cybercriminals will continue to develop new and innovative ways to steal personal data. If we are not alive to the threats, there is a great risk that we increase our vulnerability to criminals through our inaction."

Avril Jones, 59, and Edward Cairney, 77, were convicted of killing Margaret Fleming, 19, between December 1999 and January 2000 earlier this year.

In addition to the murder, Jones was also convicted of fraud as she had continued to claim £182,000 in benefits until it finally emerged Margaret was missing in October 2016.

Image caption,
Cairney and Jones spent 20 years pretending that Ms Fleming was still alive but were eventually caught out