Fraud
Our forensic accountancy team can assist in all areas of fraud – civil fraud, criminal fraud and proceeds of
crime.
Civil Fraud
In cases of civil fraud, we can be instructed as forensic accountants to investigate the possibility that a business is losing money due to a fraud being perpetrated by one or more of its employees. Once instructed as forensic accountants all of our investigations are conducted in a confidential and prudent way in order not to alert the guilty party of the real reason for our being there.
We usually find that the fraud is larger than originally thought and our investigations often show that the fraud has been going on for a number of years. Our forensic accountancy report will focus on the extent of the fraud and the weakness in the system that allowed the fraud to take place.
With IT playing such a pivotal role in business these days, we are sometimes required to examine an individual's computer to find out secret transactions and any other matters that the fraudster does not want his company to know about. Our IT experts have the skills to analyse, locate and recover the electronic data to locate, recover and analyse active the data concealing the crime.
Criminal Fraud
In cases of criminal fraud, we are instructed usually as forensic accountants on behalf of Defendants accused of fraud. Our forensic accountancy report sets out to examine and analyse the evidence prepared by the Crown Prosecution Service and to ensure that the case against the accused is consistent with the evidence brought by the Prosecution.
We often find that the Prosecution has made simple arithmetic errors or drawn wrong conclusions from financial documents. We have been instructed on cases involving frauds such as Ponzi schemes, boiler frauds (share scams) and carousel (missing trader) frauds.
Proceeds of Crime
In cases of proceeds of crime we are usually instructed as forensic accountants on behalf of Defendants to consider the report prepared by the Crown Prosecution Service. These reports usually claim that a Defendant has benefited from a particular crime and intend recovering the amount of benefit from the Defendant's known assets.
In our role as forensic accountants, we critically examine the basis of the Prosecution’s claim and in our report we isolate examples of legitimate trading which did not accrue from the proceeds of crime, but have nevertheless been included in the claim made by the Prosecution. We also examine the evidence presented relating to a Defendant’s assets and adjust the figures based on the available evidence. Our forensic involvement usually means that both the figure for benefit and the claimed assets are substantially reduced in favour of the Defendant.
For more information contact our dedicated Frenkels Westbury Forensics team on 020 8457 2787.
