Surfs Up for fraud investigators

Fraud investigators are grabbing their wet suits at BDO after the accounting firm announced a "tidal wave" of fraud that has yet to hit commercial real estate lenders.

In newspaper reports over the weekend BDO suggested that the mortgage frauds found in the residential property sector may have their counterparts in the commercial lending arena also.

Simon Bevan, head of BDO's fraud services team, expects reported fraud in the UK economy to keep growing from £2.1bn for last year and reach £5bn annually.

Talking about the level of fraud on commercial real estate lenders likely to be uncovered Bevan said; "A large part of this will be a tidal wave of fraudulent borrowing that has only just started to appear, particularly through use of over-valued properties as security for loans, while the property market was booming. Currently many of these frauds are yet to be recognised by the banks, which still have them classified as non-performing loans," said Mr Bevan.

Photo by Billie Jane via Flickr.