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By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London:

At Monday’s Annual Financial Crime conference organised by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) in London, Professor Martin Gill, a well-published criminal psychologist, gave his audience glimpses of the financial fraudster’s mind.

In one of his researches, he interviewed a number of financial fraudsters, most of whom whilst they were in prison.

“Fraudsters are an interesting group,” he said. Whereas typically, most criminals make a career of it, fraudsters commit offences later in life. One fraudster said the only offence he had done before was stealing a Mars bar. And that was all.

All interviewees were males in age ranging from early twenties to mid-forties. Most had committed crimes against their employers and all had admitted their crimes in court. Offences included deception and conspiracy to defraud and obtaining property by deception. Three of the 26 interviewees had been sentenced for using false documentation in an attempt to leave the UK. And the sentences were between one and seven years long.

Prof. Gill described one particular case, called ‘Greg’, which he found to be most interesting but also most representative.

Greg Greg joined a company – which made loans to businesses – in 1989 and was asked to falsify the accounts as the parent group had lost money. Numbers were inflated, and......................

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