The Annual Fraud Indicator recently estimated that the cost of fraud to the charity sector rose by £400m to almost £2.3bn in 2017. During the same period, the number of ‘reported serious incidents’ dealt with by the Charity Commission rose by 29%. Nevertheless, fraud remains something the charity sector would rather not discuss. In April 2018 the commission conducted a review and found that, in 38% of the cases it looked at, fraud was not reported either to the commission, to Action Fraud, or to the police. Perhaps this can be ascribed to the fact that 76% of fraud cases which were reported generated media attention and considerable discomfort for trustees.

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