Britain is becoming a hotspot for corruption and bribery and the number of British companies affected by economic fraud in the past two years is almost twice the global average, according to accountants, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
PwC’s global economic crime survey, in which 302 UK companies were questioned, reveals corruption and bribery are the fastestgrowing forms of economic crime in Britain.
British businesses are also naive about assessing risk, with only 17% believing they were “quite likely” or “very likely” to be subject to economic crime in the next two years. This is despite the fact that 48% of UK corporations suffered from some form of economic crime at some point in the past two years compared with 43% globally and 38% in western Europe.
Tony Parton, investigations partner at PwC’s forensic services team, said: “Companies have always perceived fraud as less of a risk than it is ... there is a sense of complacency.”
And the effects of economic crime for businesses are tangible and mounting. The average cost to each UK corporation as a result of such crime is £1.75m over two years, compared with £800,000 in 2005. The UK economy could be losing 3-4% of GDP per year because of fraud.