According to the Annual Fraud Indicator 2016 fraud is estimated at £127bn a year and Innovate UK is not exempt to those who wish to obtain money by de-frauding the organisation. This has a negative effect on our ability to provide funding and help those individuals and organisations who are striving to succeed and contribute to the UK economy.
Two types of fraudsters
There are two types of fraudsters, those who see it almost as a profession and will spend their life looking at ways to create scams and target both individuals, normally the elderly, vulnerable, and businesses. They can commit the crime without ever having to meet their victim, often sat at a laptop on the other side of the world.
The other type is the opportunist, now they will not normally set out to commit fraud but when presented with an opportunity, call it finding the £10 note on the street. What do you do? Try and find the owner or pocket the cash. This type of fraudster will make a very quick decision and seize the chance. If successful they will progress to look at other opportunities, maybe a career change!
Zero tolerance
At Innovate UK we take a serious approach and a zero tolerance to fraud and strive to ensure that both types of fraudster are not successful. In addition to the controls and checks that we have in place, we need your help. The more fraud we can identify and more importantly prevent the more money we will have available to fund those individuals and companies who are going to make a difference to our economy and that is something that we all benefit from.
Our investigations team continue to identify individuals and companies who submit false information in order to obtain funding, sharing information and intelligence with Action Fraud and CIFAS.
Where appropriate we will apply as many sanctions as possible, including criminal prosecution and civil recovery.
Any organisation found to have acted fraudulently will be prevented from accessing future funding, not just from Innovate UK but across government.
You can help
This is your time to help. If you suspect fraud, send your concerns to the investigations team at report.fraud@innovateuk.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can contact Action Fraud at www.actionfraud.police.uk Tel: 0300 123 2040
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