The number of fraud cases has reached record highs according to a KPMG study which found there where more fraud court cases in the last six months than at any other similar period during the study's 21 year history.

The Financial Times reported on the study which found 163 cases reached the courts in the first half of the year including buy-to-let scams and other forms of property swindling to investment fraud and workers stealing from their employers.

Hitesh Patel, a partner at KPMG, told the Financial Times the figures where bad but the worst was still to come.

"It will be a number of years before the impact of the recession fully feeds through into the fraud statistics," he said.

He cited one fraud involving a £200m attempt to sell the Ritz hotel in London. Another involved a social worker who created a bogus children's home and authorised payments of £600,000 over five years.

Read the full story: Record total of fraud cases in court - and worse to come