Expense Manipulation | Expense Fraud

In 2023, 32,529 criminal offences were committed in Wuppertal; this corresponds to 62.66 per cent of total crime in the region encompassing the cities of Wuppertal, Solingen and Remscheid (the "Bergisches Drei"). In the Schwebebahn city alone, 6,720 of these offences were property and forgery crimes, with 10,748 in the entire region; overall, just over 14 per cent of all police-registered offences were fraud-related. In most cases, companies are the victims, primarily because they are harmed by their own employees.

Countless companies nationwide employ field staff. Whether a regional wholesaler representative, the famous "vacuum cleaner salesman" or a delivery driver – all work independently and outside company premises. This naturally incurs business expenses, for example for accommodation and meals, fuel, maintenance or repair of company vehicles, and so on. As a business owner or HR manager, you must first trust that your employees report incurred expenses correctly. But what if they do not?

Claiming private costs as business expenses

Field staff in particular often exploit the trust placed in them, following the adage "opportunity makes the thief". Frequently, the fraud goes unnoticed: an employee who fills up not only the company car but also their spouse’s vehicle, claiming they had to take a detour due to traffic; a client representative who "felt obliged" to treat a client to a lavish meal but actually dined with their lover – and so on. If such inflated expenses occur only once, the offence is difficult to prove and often goes unnoticed. However, in most cases, perpetrators overestimate themselves: after a successful fraud, they tend to repeat the action – usually with increasing amounts – and are eventually caught.

This is the moment to contact our Kurtz Detective Agency Wuppertal. In our daily work, we regularly encounter expense fraud and are highly skilled and experienced in the various methods of investigation: +49 202 5289 0063.

Suspiciously high claims

Offenders often stand out because, compared with colleagues performing similar tasks, they consistently submit higher expense claims. Naturally, occasionally higher expenses occur: unusually long business trips, necessary repairs to a company vehicle, particularly important clients requiring special treatment, or unfortunate circumstances such as fully booked business hotels necessitating a more expensive option – all these are exceptional but not criminal occurrences. It becomes significant when an employee consistently exceeds standard expense levels. At that point, suspicion arises that the employee is enriching themselves at the company’s expense.

To obtain legally admissible proof of such fraudulent behaviour, you should contact our corporate investigators in Wuppertal. We provide initial consultation free of charge and without obligation, outlining case-specific investigative options. Through thorough research and professional surveillance conducted by IHK-certified detectives, we can, in most cases, collect legally admissible evidence: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-wuppertal.de.