69% of fraud perpetrators are your employees

A recent report by KPMG entitled ‘Fraud Barometer: The face of Australian fraud in 2015’ revealed an alarming statistic of internal fraud cases in Australia. The report highlighted that the most common perpetrators of fraud are business insiders – including management and employees. In just the 6 months up until September 2015, fraud committed by management averaged $3.3m in Australia.

The following infographic shows a disturbing view of the number of perpetrators who are employees and managers in organisations. Collectively, this amounts to 69% of fraud perpetrators.

A few weeks back, former HR Manager of Dingo Australia was charged with fraud and tampering with records. It was alleged that the former employee pleaded guilty to improperly using the company credit card 27 times and altering records to make these expenses appear legitimate during the period of 16 July 2015 to 7 June 2016, totalling to $1797 defrauded.

As a result, the former HR Manager was sentences to 3 months imprisonment, which is suspended for 12 months and was ordered to pay back the $1797.

Fraud isn’t just the involvement of the improper use of money. In April 2015, Australia Taxation Office told 20,000 of their officials that one of their colleagues had lost their job and has been prosecuted for lying their way into the company by falsifying their work history on their CV.

In 2013, the Public Service Code of Conduct was changed to allow bosses’ power to take action against public servants who were not providing correct information in the recruitment process. A clause was also added that employees will be liable if they fail to act with “honesty and integrity” during the hiring process.

The Tax Commissioner, Chris Jordan emphasised that lying on the CV will not be tolerated as white lies.

“Falsifying your qualifications or work history is deceitful, and chances are you will be caught out eventually, especially if you're hired for skills and attributes that you simply don't have,” he warned employees. “Don't let ambition blind you to the requirement that you act with honesty and integrity at all times.”

Being brought up in a typical Chinese family in Australia, Vivian takes pride as an ABC (Australia-born Chinese) where she happily embraces both the Chinese and Australian cultures. 

In high school, Vivian wanted to become a fashion designer, however she has developed a passion for running events after working backstage for multiple live shows. Prior to starting at Akolade, Vivian worked 4 years in the wine industry and she misses the wine tasting sessions and openly drinking on the job. As the Assistant Marketing Manager, Vivian enjoys using her creativity to design unique and fun campaigns for each event. In her spare time, Vivian loves to spend time with her two adorable pets; a cat and a dog.