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Free, confidential whistleblowing advice
Call us on 020 3117 2520 or email us

Blowing the whistle on fraud

Blowing the whistle on fraud

Fraud is any activity that relies on deception in order to achieve a gain. It becomes a crime when someone knowingly misrepresents the truth to gain a dishonest advantage over another person or organisation. Typically, fraudsters trick people, or organisations, out of money. In other words, if you lie in order to deprive a person or organisation of their money or property, you are committing fraud.

Fraud comes in different forms. The most common examples of fraud are:

  • Tax evasion: when a person or company does not pay, or underpays, tax. This includes not declaring profits or hiding money in offshore bank accounts
  • Benefit fraud: claiming money from the Government through dishonesty, including failing to report a change in circumstances
  • Online fraud: fraud committed using the internet, such as the online sale of fake designer clothes and romance scams
  • Identity fraud: the use of a stolen identity to obtain goods or a service by deception
  • Banking fraud: fraud committed against banks or banking customers
  • Money laundering: converting money made through criminal activity into assets which appear to have a legal origin to disguise the “dirty money” or assets

Where can I report fraud? 

If you have been the victim of fraud, you can speak to Action Fraud. When you report, you are given a police crime reference number and your case is referred to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, run by the Police. 

If you have witnessed fraud at work, there are many ways you can report this. Raising internally can be a good first step. Whistleblowers must meet the legal criteria for an internal disclosure, in order to be protected by the law.

Your employer is usually well positioned to fix internal problems as they understand how things work internally. However we recognise that this is not always the case, and that employers are not always receptive to complaints or willing to fix them.

Raising externally – Prescribed Persons for Fraud

If you’ve already reported a concern at work and were ignored, or if you’re afraid of being retaliated against for speaking up, there are other ways to share your concerns.

If you do not feel as though speaking up internally is an option, you can raise you concern externally, to a prescribed person.

Prescribed Persons are government prescribed bodies and people that whistleblowers can report concerns to. When reporting externally, whistleblowers must meet the stricter legal criteria for an external disclosure, in order to be protected from victimisation by the law. This includes making the report to the correct body.

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade

The Insolvency Service sits within the Department of Business and Trade. You can contact the Insolvency Service about insolvency proceedings, fraud, and other misconduct in relation to companies. You can report companies in liquidation or that have been dissolved, director misconduct and misconduct by someone who is bankrupt. The Insolvency Service can liquidate trading companies, stop them trading and disqualify directors.  

Example: A director of an inactive food delivery company made fraudulent applications for government Covid Bounce Back Loans. He pocketed the loans before shutting down the company. Following investigations by the Insolvency Service, he was banned as a director for 13 years.  

How to raise:

HMRC

You can contact His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to report a person or business you think is not paying enough tax or is committing another type of fraud against HMRC. Though HMRC do not provide feedback on whistleblowing reports, this does not mean that they are not looking into it. In very rare cases, HMRC can pay rewards to whistleblowers. These are given at their discretion and are not guaranteed. If you are eligible for a reward, they will contact you. Note that HMRC is unable to investigate issues related to Police, Border Force or other government departments.  

Example: HMRC combats tax fraud. This covers a wide range of illegal activity, including falsifying tax returns, falsely claiming tax repayments or reliefs, hiding income, gains or wealth offshore, or smuggling taxable goods.  For example, a gang planned to sell cigarettes, that were illegally smuggled into the UK, on the black market in order to evade millions of pounds of tax. HMRC uncovered the illegal operation and arrested the gang members.  

How to raise:

  • Tel: 0800 788 887
  • Outside UK: +44 203 080 0871
  • Raise concerns online: Whistleblow to HMRC  

FCA

You can contact the FCA about money laundering, financial crime, anti-competitive practices, and other serious financial misconduct, committed by individuals or companies regulated by the FCA.  

Example: A UK bank failed to implement anti-money laundering and sanction evasion measures that it had agreed with the FCA. The FCA investigated these failings and fined the bank nearly £30 million.  

How to raise:

  • Tel: 020 7066 9200, Fax: 020 7676 9727
  • Email: whistle@fca.org.uk 
  • Write to: Intelligence Department (Ref PIDA), Financial Conduct Authority, 12 Endeavour Square, London E20 1JN or
  • Raise concerns online: Whistleblow to the FCA  

Payment Systems Regulator

You can raise concerns to the Payment Systems Regulator about the payments industry and payment service providers. They regulate companies’ payment systems including Mastercard and Visa (Europe), whereas PayPal is directly regulated by the FCA. The PSR participates in the FCA’s whistleblowing programme. Anyone wishing to blow the whistle on malpractice in relation to payment systems (or the services they provide) can contact the PSR via the FCA’s Intelligence Department.  

Example: Payment service providers are required to reimburse customers who are victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud. You could contact the PSR about a payment service provider that refuses to reimburse victims of APP fraud.  

How to raise: via the FCA. For more information, see Whistleblowing to the PSR.  

 

National Food Crime Unit, Food Standards Agency

You can contact the Food Standards Agency (FSA) about food crime in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland. Suspected food crime committed in Scotland should be reported to Food Standards Scotland . Food crime is serious fraud in connection with the production, supply or consumption of food that impacts the safety or the authenticity of food, drink or animal feed. Poor hygiene practices in a food business are not considered to be food crime and should be reported to your local authority instead.  

Example: Food crimes include reselling expired or stolen food, adulterating food (e.g. watering down beer) to lower costs or fake a higher quality, and marketing or labelling a product to wrongly portray its quality, safety, origin or freshness.  

How to raise:

NHS Counter Fraud Authority

You can raise concerns to the NHS Counter Fraud Authority about fraud, bribery, corruption, and other economic crime against the NHS in England and Wales. If you work in the NHS, you can also speak to your Local Counter Fraud Specialist about your concerns.  

Example: A doctor working at an NHS trust forged timesheets to claim payment for hours she didn’t work. A colleague raised concerns to the NHS Counter Fraud Authority, who investigated and referred the doctor to the General Medical Council for a misconduct hearing.  

How to raise:  

Trade Unions: The Certification Officer

The Certification Officer (CO) is the regulator for trade unions and employers’ associations. You can raise concerns to the CO about fraud, financial irregularities, or breaches of certain rules or legal requirements by trade unions and employers’ associations. You can only raise concerns to the CO if you work (or did work at the time of the incident you are disclosing) for a trade union or employers’ association.  

Example: All UK unions are legally obliged to submit annual accounts to the Certification Officer. A major union failed to file its accounts to the CO on time. The CO took enforcement action and issued a fine against the union.  

How to raise:

Serious Fraud Office

You can raise concerns to the Serious Fraud Office about individuals or companies engaging in serious or complex fraud, including bribery and corruption.

The SFO can only take on a very small number of cases each year and prioritises cases: involving high-profile individuals, cases with an international dimension or cases that involve large sums of money—in the hundred of millions of pounds. The SFO will consider whether the complexity and nature of the suspected offence warrants their involvement. Unlike most regulators, the SFO can prosecute.

Example: A multinational multibillion aerospace and defence company paid huge bribes to European and British politicians, civil servants, and business leaders to secure lucrative government contracts. The SFO and its European counterparts launched an investigation, with each agency focusing on its own jurisdiction. The SFO ultimately reached a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the company. This included a £100 million fine and introducing compulsory measures to prevent future breaches.

How to raise:

National Crime Agency

You can raise concerns to the NCA about individuals or companies offering or receiving bribes. Allegations of bribery and corruption involving UK companies, or foreign companies and/or individuals linked to the UK, should be reported to the NCA’s International Corruption Unit. You can also contact the NCA about matters relating to compliance with the Terrorism Act 2000, the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, or the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 [A]. 

Example: An unregistered moneylender took payments from migrants and passed the money on to criminal gangs, who smuggled the migrants into the UK. He also helped the people smugglers launder their criminal proceeds. Following an NCA investigation, the moneylender was convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail for money laundering and engaging in organised immigration fraud.

How to:

The Lord Advocate, Scotland

You can raise concerns to the Lord Advocate, Scotland, about any aspect of criminality in Scotland, including serious or complex fraud. Depending on the context of the matter, updates may be provided to whistleblowers if it is appropriate to do so.

How to raise:

Prescribed Persons for Public Sector Fraud

England

The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) 

 The C&AG sits within the National Audit Office. They scrutinise and report to Parliament on public bodies’ use of funds. You can raise concerns to the C&AG about public bodies, including local authorities, regarding their conduct of public business, value for money, fraud and corruption in relation to provision of public services. 

The C&AG cannot investigate individual local authorities directly. The C&AG would usually refer the whistleblower to the local authority’s external auditor, who is the prescribed person for local authorities. However, the C&AG is still interested in individual reports, as the additional information could contribute to a broader investigation across multiple authorities. 

You can find out who the external auditor is for most local authorities by looking on the PSAA website.  

Example: A whistleblower raised concerns to the C&AG about the inefficient use of public funds by a public body on external consultants, potential conflicts of interest regarding these external consultants, and delays in updating its assets register.  The C&AG conducted an investigation and concluded that these issues had already been uncovered in a previous audit; however, the information provided by the whistleblower helped the C&AG to better understand and monitor these issues to ensure compliance with its recommendations. 

How to raise 

Wales

1. The Auditor General for Wales 

The Auditor General is the auditor of most public bodies in Wales. You can raise concerns to them about the proper conduct of public business, value for money, fraud and corruption in public bodies in Wales. The Auditor General only examines allegations of criminality, such as fraud, if they are confident that such work would not prejudice a law enforcement investigation. 

Example: a whistleblower raised concerns to the Auditor General about wrongdoing by senior leaders of a Welsh local authority, including inflated renumeration payments, budgetary decisions, and breaches of pensions regulations.  The Auditor General conducted an audit review of the local authority’s governance and oversight arrangements. The Auditor General’s investigation concluded that the culture and governance of the local authority was deficient and issued a series of recommendations to improve the local authority’s corporate governance and oversight arrangements. 

How to raise 

 

2. Public Services Ombudsman for Wales 

You can raise concerns to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales about breaches by a member or co-opted member of a relevant authority’s code of conduct in Wales. The Public Services Ombudsman can only investigate concerns in writing, and where evidence is provided showing how the member concerned has breached the code of conduct. 

Following any investigation, the Ombudsman may refer the accused member to the Adjudication Panel for Wales or their local standards committee which may, if any breaches of the code are proven, suspend or disqualify the member from holding office. 

The Ombudsman cannot investigate complaints about services provided by public bodies. 

How to raise:

Scotland

1. Accounts Commission for Scotland 

You can raise concerns to the Accounts Commission for Scotland about the conduct of public business, value for money, fraud and corruption in local government bodies in Scotland. See here for a list of the public bodies audited by the Accounts Commissioner for Scotland. 

They are primarily concerned with issues that have wider implications rather than those that affect a small number of individuals, unless the issue involves significant sums of money. 

Example: an employee of a Scottish local authority stole £1.1 million from his employer over a decade. After his fraud was uncovered, the Accounts Commission launched an investigation into the failings that allowed the perpetrator’s actions to go unnoticed for so long and prescribed a series of recommendations for the local authority to better safeguard public money. 

How to raise: 

 

2. Auditor General for Scotland 

The Auditor General for Scotland is responsible for the audit of all public bodies in Scotland except local authorities. This includes the Scottish Government, government agencies, NHS bodies, police and fire services, further education colleges and most non-departmental public bodies.  

You can raise concerns to the Auditor General for Scotland about the proper conduct of public business in Scotland, including value for money, fraud and corruption in relation to the provision of public services by these public bodies. 

How to raise: 

 

3. Audit Scotland 

You can also raise concerns to Audit Scotland about the conduct of public bodies in Scotland, including value for money, fraud and corruption. To differ from the Auditor General for Scotland, this includes concerns about transparency of local government decision-making, local authorities’ governance and scrutiny arrangements, local authority spending on local area projects, officer and elected members’ conduct and transparency around planning decisions. 

How to raise:

 

4. Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland 

You can raise concerns to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland about the behaviour of MSPs, local authority councillors, and members of devolved public bodies and about lobbyists, where you think they have acted in a way that breaches their applicable code of conduct. 

How to raise: 

 

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has its own whistleblowing law, The Public Interested Disclosure (Northern Ireland) Order 1998, and has its own list of government Prescribed Bodies which you can find here. 

Case study

We advise callers how to safely report fraud on a regular basis, this is how we helped Sarah.

Disclosures which are not made internally, or to a prescribed body, are known as wider disclosures. This includes reporting to a professional body, a non-prescribed regulator, a union official, a shareholder or the media.

Action Fraud and the Police are two examples of non-prescribed bodies that you can report fraud to. 

In making such a disclosure, you must meet much more stringent criteria to be protected. We would recommend speaking to us before making a wider disclosure.

Still not clear on what to do? You can speak to one of our Legal Advisers. Submit a webform outlining your concerns and what you are wanting advice on and we will be in touch. You can also reach us on our Legal Advice Line: 0203 117 2520.