Commercial fraud or Fidelity Guarantee insurance cover has been available for many years. However, many businesses have been reluctant to take this cover either because they felt they had a loyal and trustworthy staff or it seemed to demonstrate a distrust of the staff. Sadly, evidence suggests that many businesses have been seriously hurt financially following fraud by an employee.
Specific fraud risks are:
Fraudulent diversion of funds
Fraudulently creating and approving purchases
Falsifying, either individually or in collusion with others, the financial accounts to enable the payment of salaries etc
Helping external parties falsify the provision of goods and services
Theft of stock by employees or in collusion with a third party
Theft of your own or client funds
Stealing or forging company cheques
Recently commissioned research showed directors or senior managers committed almost two thirds of the fraud cases surveyed. A third of all fraud was committed by long standing employees of between 10 and 25 years service. One half was done in collusion with others and youngsters under 25 make up a very small proportion of perpetrators.
There are potential pointers to fraud such as:
Certain customers or suppliers dealt with exclusively by one employee
Personal lifestyle not matching income
Refusal to take holiday entitlement
Mundane tasks retained rather than delegated