Fraud cases in the UK rose by 16% last year to reach a record total of 314 reported incidents, valued at £1.4bn, according to a report by KPMG.

Mortgage fraud continued to increase last year, with 34 cases valued at £108.4m, compared with 31 cases valued at £77m for the previous year. The report said that mortgage fraud was ‘rife’ in the first half of 2010, with 21 cases valued at £96m, but ‘plummeted’ during July to December to just 13 cases, valued at £12.4m. This suggests that ‘bigger, more organised mortgage fraud is being tackled head on by the financial institutions', the report said.

The report, the 23rd annual Fraud Barometer prepared by audit, tax and advisory services provider KPMG, analysed all major fraud cases worth more than £100,000 heard in the UK’s Crown Courts during 2010.

It found that 42% of the cases, totalling £571m, were aimed at the public purse. One case, worth £103m, involved fraudulent bids for tax breaks on research into green technologies. The biggest, worth £200m, saw taxpayers’ money used to set up an overseas money laundering operation.

Professional criminals accounted for more than half of all fraud, according to the report.

KPMG forensic partner Hitesh Patel said: ‘Professional gangs are the chameleons of the fraud world, constantly changing their colours to keep one step ahead of technological development and exploiting business evolution for their own nefarious ends.

‘The online universe has opened up a whole new world for innovative fraudsters. Unfortunately, anti-fraud measures do not always keep pace with professional criminal activity.’