The level of fraud in the UK has conitinued to climb over the six months to June, with more than 100 new cases hitting the UK courts during the period, KPMG has found.

Carousel fraud was by far the most significant contributor to the case load. Four caorusel fraud cases worth £440m came to the courts, with the single largest case valued at £250m alone.

The KPMG's forensics arm, which monitors the number of fraud cases on its Fraud Barometer , found that for the fourth six-month period in a row, more than 100 fraud cases worth £100,000 or more have come to court, with their value up about by £594m for the third time over that period.

This is a higher value in six months than in the whole of 2000, 2001, 2003 or 2004.

'The recent trend now looks unmistakable,' said Hitesh Patel, a director at KPMG forensics. 'The amount of fraud coming to court has undergone a step-change over the last couple of years, and these high levels look like they are here to stay.'

Patel said the deluge of cases showed that fraud was being detected and prosecuted, which was a positive sign, but expressed concern over the possibility that the high number of prosecutions indicated that more fraud was being committed.

Further reading:

Tax fraud: the criminal element

Call for action on carousel fraud advisers

10 UK arrests in carousel fraud crackdown