Description
Claim examples
- Employee hides fraud behind specialised knowledge
A systems manager was working for a manufacturing company for 14 years and stole property worth £150,000 during the last 7 years of his employment. The employee was responsible for ordering all IT equipment required for use by the company. The employers were impressed by the employee’s expertise and trusted him with the entire IT budget, without ensuring adequate controls were in place to record the type and amount of products ordered and whether they were accounted for on the premises. A colleague had become suspicious of the employee’s activities, but it was not until a company Christmas party that this was disclosed to senior management! Otherwise, the loss could have continued undetected for many years to come. - Slow-burn fraud by finance director
A building manufacturer discovered their finance director had stolen €215,000 after a client contacted them querying an overdue payment that the insured owed. Although the insured’s accounts had shown the money had been paid, an inquiry by the board discovered monies had in fact been transferred to fraudulent bank accounts, controlled by the finance director and family members. The FD had manipulated refunds and payment procedures and had personally written and signed computer-produced company cheques each month for small amounts to avoid suspicion. Unfortunately, he was able to get away with this for 9 years before being caught out. - Internal gang uses stolen passwords to manipulate sales system
A retail computer company made a claim for £112,000 after it discovered three of its employees, in collusion with a third party, had stolen 40 computers through sales at four regional department stores. By using other colleagues’ passwords to access the orders and sales system, the employees were able to raise fraudulent orders and issue fictional invoices. Delivery of the insured’s property was made to third parties without payment for 8 months. It was not until a fraudulent delivery was returned to the insured’s premises that the fraud was discovered.
Factors indicating higher risk?
- Cash operations
- Large workforce
- Company doing a lot of invoices & payments
- Company has treasury department
- Logistics (all transportations companies)