The most common types of fraud affecting the construction and engineering sector relate to a company’s physical assets either by way of theft of assets or stock, misappropriation of company funds, or manipulation of company accounts.
This sector is also susceptible to corruption and bribery, as well as procurement fraud (a problem that affects a broad spectrum of industries in the UK).
However, according to the Kroll Report, incidents of fraud across the industry were 5% lower than in 2015 with just 70% of respondents reporting at least one incident of fraud in the previous 12 months1. Anti-fraud measures have been aimed at tackling the internal threat from employees, as junior employees are the most common perpetrators of fraud within the construction and engineering industries.
We have delivered training on current threats of financial crime in this sector to those running multi-billion pound projects in the UK, through to advising housing assocciations where contractors have misled them on property maintenance contracts.
We have experience in advising clients in this sector on identifying and reducing their risks to fraud through assisting on investigations and in litigation.