Over 160 cases of serious fraud were brought to court in the UK during the first half of 2009, new research by KPMG has revealed.
This, the audit and accounting company said, is the highest number for a six-month period ever recorded since the KPMG Fraud Barometer was established 21 years ago.
Company managers were responsible for 32 of the cases, carrying out fraudulent activity worth £150 million against their employers, while behaviour such as tax and duty evasion cost the government £150 million.
Over a quarter (44) of cases were against the financial sector, the Big Four firm found.
Partner at KPMG forensic Hitesh Patel warned that the "worst is yet to come".
"It will be a number of years before the impact of the recession fully feeds through into the fraud statistics," he remarked.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders recently revealed that mortgage fraud is increasing due to the tightening of lending criteria following the economic downturn.
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