Charities suffer fraud losses

Charities reported fraud losses of almost £8m last year, according to figures released by the UK’s national reporting centre, Action Fraud. Accountancy firm RSM obtained the figures through a freedom of information request. It found that charities submitted 1,057 reports of fraud totalling £7.85m in the year to March 2019. Employee fraud accounted for the highest level of fraud losses at £1.68m, followed by abuse of a position of trust at £1.63m.

RSM consider that this data was “unlikely to show the true level of fraud affecting charities”, as it only shows fraud that has been reported. Some of the larger loss amounts may require further investigation to assess the true financial impact on the charity.