The Successful Frauditor's Casebook

by Peter Tickner (Editor)

Overview

“…fraud auditors and investigators don’t get delivered by the stork fully formed and professionally at the top of their game. We all learn our trade by a mixture of other colleagues’ experiences, learning what can or cannot be done and, ultimately, we learn from our own earlier mistakes.”
—Peter Tickner

Fraud is a key business risk for all organizations, and costs the UK economy billions of pounds every year. Fraud prevention, through effective internal controls and systems is only part of the story: if the safeguards fail, and a fraud is committed, auditors must be able to detect and investigate it successfully. Each fraud is different, but there are themes which are common to most, if not all cases, and being able to spot these warning signs is a skill developed through practice and experience.

In The Successful Frauditor's Casebook, seasoned auditor and fraud investigator Peter Tickner shares the benefit of his years of experience in detecting and investigating frauds in both the public and private sectors. Through an examination of real-life examples of fraud, Peter provides insightful analysis of the factors which allowed the frauds to develop, and a robust assessment of the processes of detection and investigation in each case. He also takes a detailed look at the steps taken by the affected organizations to recover from the damage caused by the fraud, highlighting the most, and the least, successful methods.

Written in Peter’s inimitable ‘no holds barred’ style, The Successful Frauditor’s Casebook is an interesting, invaluable and occasionally humorous resource for all audit professionals, fraud investigators and managers wanting to know more about the art of successful fraud investigation.

Peter Tickner’s case studies are perfect ‘what would you do next’ insights into how to detect and investigate frauds at all levels, culminating in probably one of the most difficult jobs in the UK – auditing the Metropolitan Police Service. This second book packs a wealth of expertise and experience (as well as common sense) that provides practitioners with guidance on what to do, and how, as well as an understanding of the difficulties in auditing fraud, the strength to take on vested interests and the tenacity to succeed. A compelling book that complements its predecessor.*
—Alan Doig, Visiting Professor, Centre for Public Services Management, Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781119960591
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	03/05/2012
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Peter Tickner (Reading, UK) Former Director of Internal Audit, Metropolitan Police Authority, Head of Internal Audit at HM Treasury, internal auditor for the NHS. He has held positions as President of the IIA, and Chair of the Editorial Board for the IIA Journal and as senior lecture at the Civil Service Colleague. He is now a consultant and a regular speaker at IRR Fraud conferences and trains for professional organizations such as CIPFA.

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Table of Contents

Foreword by Brian Paddick vii

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xi

PART I SETTING THE SCENE 1

1 The lessons worth learning from past mistakes 3

PART II THE NHS 13

2 Cooking the books in NHS catering 15

3 NHS professionals—a better class of fraudster 25

PART III CHARITIES AND SCHOOLS 37

4 The ‘nun on the run’ 39

5 Charity begins at home 51

PART IV UK BANKING FRAUD 65

6 Robin Hood or Robbing Hood? 67

7 Bringing down the bank at Barrings 79

PART V UK POLICE INTERNAL FRAUD 91

8 The ‘Laird of Tomintoul’— and how to get the right to graze sheep at Scotland Yard 93

9 Corporate credit cards for cops—Part II 107

PART VI INTERNAL UK FRAUD 127

10 Curiouser and curiouser 129

PART VII GOVERNMENT 135

11 The men from the Ministry 137

12 The ghost, the guardian and the Galleria—internal fraud in local authorities 151

13 The heating contractor who was just a load of hot air 161

PART VIII UK POLICE AND MILITARY OUTSOURCING

AND PROCUREMENT 169

14 An outsourcing nightmare 171

15 Alarm bells should have been ringing out, loud and clear 191

16 Fun with works and maintenance in the police and the Ministry of Defence 215

PART IX US COMPANY FRAUD 233

17 Crazy Eddie wasn’t so crazy after all 235

18 ZZZZ Best and Barrie Minkow—saint or sinner 253

PART X MULTI-NATIONAL FRAUDSTERS 265

19 Firepower: a bitter pill to swallow 267

20 Recent scandals in the subcontinent 277

PART XI CONCLUDING THOUGHTS 289

21 Can significant frauds be nipped in the bud 291

Notes 297

Index 301