Private Sector

An admin assistant who embezzled more than £1.5 million from her Aberdeen employer was jailed last month for three years and four months.

Coleen Muirhead worked for metal recycling company Panda Rosa Metals, from 2015-2021 and stole the money by creating fake transactions to a non-existent client named G Anderson. She spent the money on lavish holidays, cars, caravans, her son's wedding, and savings accounts for her grandchildren.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/watch-out-for-the-red-flags-that-indicate-insider-fraud-tom-stocker-4377774

An Essex company director has been jailed after being part of a fraud scheme where fake invoices worth £1million were submitted to suppliers. Paul Fitzsimmons, 49, of Royal Drive, Leicester, held the role of facilities and services manager at US law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP since the late 1990s.

https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/men-used-fake-invoices-company-8833294

The former chief financial officer at collapsed bakery chain Patisserie Valerie has denied fraud as he appeared in court alongside his wife for the first time.

Christopher Marsh, 49, Louise Marsh, 55, Pritesh Mistry, 41, and Nileshkumar Lad, 50, are all accused of defrauding the company’s shareholders and creditors between October 2015 and October 2018.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/ex-patisserie-valerie-finance-chief-095230544.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr

Former Co-op Bank boss Paul Flowers has appeared in court accused of a £196,000 fraud by abusing his position.

Flowers, 73, made his first court appearance after two earlier hearings were aborted when his lawyers told the court he had recently suffered a stroke and could not attend.

https://www.cityam.com/former-co-op-bank-boss-appears-in-court-accused-of-196000-fraud-1/

A corrupt NatWest employee who helped a gang of fraudsters steal more than £1mn from wealthy bank customers was jailed for five and a half years.

Said Hussain, 34, accessed 30 overseas victims' accounts and passed their details to members of an organised crime group while based at the East Ham branch in east London.

With the fines for employing illegal workers in the UK tripling, employment screening and identity expert, Sterling, has urged firms to ensure they have robust vetting and screening in place, no matter what sector they operate in.

https://londonlovesbusiness.com/fines-to-increase-for-employers-without-robust-employment-screening/

Car dealer Pendragon is currently facing a £260m lawsuit in the High Court.

The lawsuit alleges that one of Pendragon’s subsidiaries engaged in fraud and contract breaches by directly selling new software to dealerships in Asia and the Pacific, a product that they were supposed to market through an agreement with Pinewood AP Ltd, a marketing company.

As the pandemic’s aftershocks reverberate through the financial ecosystem, insolvency law specialists are bracing for an overwhelming influx of fraud-based legal cases.

The pandemic required the government to provide fast and extensive support to keep businesses and individuals afloat. However, when schemes are created and implemented at such a pace, they may not be completely airtight from exploitative or fraudulent behaviour.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/covid-fraud-aftershocks-continue-to-reverberate-alan-munro-4345131

An HMRC employee has been convicted of claiming her children were disabled and submitting false tax credits to fraudulently steal over £238,000 from her employer.

The hearing, which took place at Newcastle Crown Court, found that Tracy Ashbridge had abused her job as an HMRC employee, working in the area of child tax credit claims, to fraudulently claim large sums of money.

Detectives from Dorset Police’s Economic Crime Unit are carrying out a fraud investigation relating to a property management firm in the BCP area.

Dorset Police has received a number of reports relating to Poole based Initiative Property Management Limited, which mainly operates in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole areas.