More than half of Wales' businesses have no agreed written fraud risk policy in place to prevent and detect fraud, according to new research by R3, the insolvency trade body.

The survey of senior financial decision-makers found that 58 per cent of businesses had no such policy in place, while 14 per cent weren’t sure.

Alan Bennett, R3 chair in Wales and the South West and partner at Ashfords LLP, said: “Fraud is a staggeringly expensive problem for the UK economy, yet half of the UK’s companies don’t have precautions in place to protect themselves against fraudsters. Businesses in every sector and of all sizes are at risk. An agreed written risk policy should outline a company’s strategy for preventing, detecting and dealing with fraud.

“Fraudsters are becoming more professional and innovative in how they target businesses. For example, our members have seen cases of fraudsters replicating company email addresses pretending to be senior staff, and writing to employees ordering the quick transfer of funds to a specific account. By the time the staff realise it’s a con, the money is long gone.”

Alan Bennett continues: “Smaller companies are just as much at risk of fraud as their larger counterparts, but losses as a result of fraud could be much harder for them to absorb and recover from.

“While smaller companies understandably have greater constraints on their resources, agreeing a written fraud policy doesn’t have to be an onerous or expensive task. It’s an opportunity to identify fraud risk factors, evaluate whether sufficient controls are in place and set out the steps to be taken if you are targeted.”