Deloitte Consulting partners with RBPF to fight fraud
Wednesday June 01 2011 | 04:26 AM

FOR the past two years, financial crimes have represented six per cent of all reported crime, and for the first quarter of the year fraud reports have totalled $1.5 million in Barbados.

That is according to Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin, who was speaking at the opening ceremony of a two-day seminar on fraud detection and forensic training hosted by Deloitte Barbados and Deloitte Canada for members of the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) at the PomMarine Hotel, Hastings, Christ Church.

“We have an increase in financial crimes and fraud and so to be a credible force, I think that we need to be in position to address this. We cannot as a police force boast about solving shoplifting, burglaries and even homicides and not be able to address financial crimes,” said Commissioner Dottin.

“Financial crimes are even more insidious, they cause great anxiety among investors, they cause a lot of instability in companies, commerce, problems in Government departments...and so as a credible police force, we need to respond in that way to address these matters. This training course is part of our approach to build capacity in the force to address these crimes,” he continued.

The Police Commissioner said that crimes of fraud over the last two years, represent about six percent of all reported crime. 

“For the first quarter of this year, we had fraud reports totalling $1.5 million and that perhaps that is not the full picture, but it may be the tip of the iceberg and that is why we are building capacity.”

He also said that the RBPF has put more investigators in the Financial Crimes Unit, adding that he believes that stiffer legislation is needed to deal with persons who commit financial crimes.

Assistant Superintendent John Maxwell of the Fraud Squad said, “Fraud is not often easy to prove and for this reason those who are charged with investigating reports of this nature must understand the law, systems and the various ways that these frauds are perpetuated.

“As a consequence, persons carrying out this duty must possess the necessary skill sets in order to function competently. That having been said, it is abundantly clear why this seminar is timely and important.”

In his remarks, CEO of Deloitte Consulting Limited, Oliver Jordan said that Deloitte welcomes the opportunity to provide this training to the 40 members of RBPF.

“We work closely with our colleagues in Canada. We do a lot of forensic accounting work with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, using modern investigative techniques and we thought that some of these techniques would be of relevance to the RBPF,” said Jordan.

He said training of this nature is important because it is an increasing area of concern for the police force, not just in Barbados but globally and it provides an opportunity for police officers to gain from the experience that the firm has in doing this kind of work.

Managing Partner of Deloitte (Barbados), Patrick Toppin also expressed similar sentiments.

“When it comes to fraud, litigation and other business challenges, there is no substitute for experience. Deloitte’s Forensic & Dispute Services professionals are a diverse group with a wide and varied range of proficiencies, comprising forensic accountants, legal and law enforcement specialists, and business intelligence experts, all utilising state-of-the art forensic technology to ensure that data is handled with optimal efficiency,” said Toppin.

“I am pleased that we have the opportunity to share our Deloitte experience with you in the interest of better equipping our local officers with an updated view in this specialist field,” he said.