Private Sector

Winding-up orders made against companies accused of loan fraud

• Ledbridge Consultants Limited and Montague Partners Ltd secured funds from Covid support schemes they were not entitled to
• Both failed to use the funds to support their businesses, filed suspicious accounts with Companies House and used people’s identities unlawfully
• The companies were wound-up at the High Court following investigations by the Insolvency Service

Two connected companies which fraudulently received more than £1 million in Covid support loans have been shut down by the courts following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

https://www.wired-gov.net/wg/news.nsf/articles/Court+shuts+down+two+connected+companies+which+received+more+than+1+million+in+fraudulent+Covid+loans+16092024101000

A 'trusted' office manager stole almost £700,000 from a company she worked at for 15 years.

Claire Reeves choose to defraud her employer by making hundreds of fake supplier payments to herself, despite being on a good salary plus annual increases and bonuses.

A sneaky fraudster quietly sold stock from his employer on eBay in a brazen bid to make some "quick money" – but his long-running scam badly backfired after a chance mistake by him.

Greedy and crafty Patrick Reilly gave himself away when, one day, he went out to lunch and an eagle-eyed finance manager noticed that he had left his computer logged in on an eBay account.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/employee-stole-stock-from-company-and-sold-it-on-ebay-but-was-caught-out-on-his-lunch-break/ar-AA1pdq7d

Recent regulatory action highlights the importance of remaining alive to the risks of fraud. Auditors must be aware of how legal requirements and auditing standards guide obligations when reporting suspicions of fraudulent activities.

The primary role of auditors is to provide an opinion on the truth and fairness of the financial statements. Given their access to financial information and sensitive records, auditors are often best placed to detect discrepancies and potential fraud that might otherwise go unnoticed.

A fraudster whose “sophisticated and prolonged” deceptions sent a barbers academy to the brink of collapse has been jailed for four years.

August Flynn posed as a qualified tutor at the Sid Sottung Academy in Nottingham, where he created fake invoices, fabricated correspondence and formulated a false bullying allegation for his own financial gain.

A general manager who stole £240,000 worth of stock to fund the cost of his gambling habit admitted his crime in a text message to his employer.

Craig Williams, aged 48, abused his position at PGK Distribution UK, based at Lenton Lane Industrial Estate in Nottingham, between June 2016 and July 2018.

The Insolvency Service has successfully closed down a fake travel company run by a man with several different identities and multiple fraud convictions behind him.

The Insolvency Service now want to contact any businesses or individuals who might be owed money by Zulu Travel Services Ltd operating from addresses in Birkenhead, Chester, Manchester and London and run by “Dr Darren Anderson” who was listed as its sole director. 

Almost two thirds of all director bans last year, which included people working in the property industry, were related to misconduct and fraud related to covid loans although most avoided criminal prosecution, the Insolvency Service’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2023-24 shows.

The latest statistics released by the Insolvency Service this week shows the level of work the agency carried out in 2023-24 to tackle Covid loan abuse.

Boeing will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two crashes of 737 Max jetliners that killed 346 people after the American government determined the firm had breached an agreement that had protected it from prosecution for more than three years, the US justice department has said.

https://news.stv.tv/world/boeing-accepts-plea-deal-to-avoid-criminal-trial-over-737-max-crashes

Earlier this week, Buckinghamshire-based businessman Aasim Johar was jailed for seven years for his role in a £3.3m cleaning products fraud at the University of Edinburgh which ran from 2005 until 2015. Johar had been acting together with Geoff Turnbull who, at the time of the offence, was the university’s assistant director of estates and buildings. Sally Clark looks at the case.

https://www.scottishlegal.com/articles/sally-clark-edinburgh-university-fraud-case-highlights-risk-to-employers