Interviews

Helping SME fraud victims get money back

by Mark Rowe

A free seminar ‘Getting your money back: practical advice for smaller businesses on recovering fraud losses’ will offer advice to smaller businesses in the Midlands who have fallen victim to fraud and want to know how to get their money back. It will include sessions covering criminal prosecution and the full range of civil recovery options. Business people will also get the opportunity to ask the experts questions about recovering their money lost through fraud.

As organisers say, smaller businesses can ill-afford to lose money to fraud. It costs the sector around £9.54bn a year and victims are severely disadvantaged by a lack of initial crisis help and guidance on how to get their money back.

Ros Wright CB QC, chairman of the Fraud Advisory Panel, said: ‘Fraud losses to small and medium-sized businesses are enormous – more than £9bn a year plus the damage to morale and reputation. Fraud can hobble a smaller business for decades and sometimes destroy it entirely. Prevention is better than cure and smaller businesses could do more to reduce their vulnerability. But we also need to reduce the damage done when fraud does strike. If you run a smaller business that’s been hit by fraud, or fear it might be, this seminar will help you make a confident start in recovering your losses and repairing the damage.’

Mark Surguy, chairman of the Midlands Fraud Forum and a partner in the Birmingham office of law firm Eversheds, said: ‘Recovering money is very important to fraud victims. But very few business victims understand their real options or even know how to make a start finding out what they might be. Clearly more needs to be done to educate smaller businesses about the options of redress available to them in the event of a fraud. It is these incapacitating gaps in understanding that this seminar is designed to bridge.’

Mark Kenkre, joint head of the fraud and risk services team at law firm DWF LLP, will lead a session on using the civil courts. He said: ‘Fraud victims could and should use non-criminal routes to justice to much greater effect. There are numerous ways to take the fight to the fraudster – civil litigation and asset recovery, insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings, dispute resolution procedures, insurance – and they can all replace or supplement criminal proceedings. At present, too many victims either end up dealing with recovery unsupported or decide to do nothing, handing a default victory to the fraudster.’

The lunchtime seminar is a collaboration between the national fraud watchdog the Fraud Advisory Panel, the Midlands Fraud Forum and the Federation of Small Businesses. It will be held noon to 2pm on Thursday 12 September 2013 in Birmingham. For more information and to register visit www.fraudadvisorypanel.org, or email [email protected].

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