Fraud, deception, theft – whatever term you are used to, the fact is that in business they mean the same thing – loss. Loss of income, loss of profit, loss of assets.
According to the website nzdotstats.stats.govt.nz, for 2018 there were 13,451 prosecutions for fraud, deception and related offences. The problem with this statistic is that the number of frauds or deceptions that are un-reported, un-detected or un-prosecuted is much higher.
The New Zealand Police are in such a dire position in dealing with so many other matters and crimes that, often fraud matters will be downgraded in priority.
This is by no means a criticism of the police and the fine job they do.
But, just by the nature of the amount of work our police have to contend with, they have to triage their work and more often than not fraud and deception will take second place to offences such as child abuse, adult sexual assault, serious assaults and homicide.
So as a business owner where do you go, who do you speak to?
Private investigators are usually your best avenue as they will often have a background that allows them to investigate fraud.
Private investigations
A private investigator can investigate a matter to the point where a company can have the evidence to commence dismissal proceedings against the perpetrator or, they can complete an investigation to the required standard of a prosecution and hand a completed prosecution file to police for their action.
As all of the technical and time-consuming work will have been completed, police will often prosecute these files in a timely fashion.
Fraud will hurt a business and can cause a business to fail, so the quicker a fraudster is identified and dealt with, the sooner a business can move forward and try to recuperate from the losses incurred.
Fraud will hurt a business and can cause a business to fail, so the quicker a fraudster is identified and dealt with, the sooner a business can move forward and try to recuperate from the losses incurred.”
– Dwayne Morgan
Prevention is, of course, always the best approach to this type of offending.
Having the appropriate processes in place to ensure that a person cannot skim money or assets from a company helps ensure that company’s survival and prevents loss.
But if the worst does occur in your company you need to know who to contact and who can assist you and guide you in these troubling times.
Dwayne Morgan is Chief Executive of Special Programs Security Ltd. He can be reached on 027-576-7616 or at dwayne@specialprogramssecurity.co.nz
