KPMG’s Fraud Barometer, which records cases involving sums of money of more £100,000, revealed 13 high value instances of fraud mostly against financial institutions, as reported by the BBC.
Of these, three were mortgage related totalling more than £1m while a fraudulent sheep farmer was jailed for four years for using a false identity to scam £400,000 from a finance firm for a fake hotel and golf course scheme in Fife.
In contrast, in 2013 more than a third of the cases registered on the barometer involved employees defrauding their own companies.
Ken Milliken, KPMG head of forensic, Scotland, said: “Individuals who gave false information to acquire mortgages are now paying the price as banks and then police look to crack down on mortgage fraud.
“The numbers do not mean that mortgage fraud is on the increase but rather that investigation and enforcement activity is on the increase.”
Milliken said there were still many embezzlers and other con artists within this year’s figures looking for opportunities and preying on the vulnerable.
“Companies cannot afford to be complacent. As individuals, we also need to be wary of that opportunity which seems too good to be true. It is that complacency and gullibility that fraudsters thrive on.”
