BPS responds to case of fraud

At the same time, we commissioned our own investigation to pinpoint where we needed to improve our policies, processes and ways of working.

Largely due to the pandemic, which led to significant delays in the criminal justice system, this case has taken two years to conclude.

During this time, we shared as much information as possible; however, we were prevented from discussing most of the details relating to the case, to ensure that we did not prejudice criminal proceedings.

We know that this has been frustrating for some members and we are very sorry that we were prevented from sharing more information with you before the conclusion of the criminal proceedings. 

On Monday 7 February, at Leicester Crown Court, Viola Sander, a former Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive of the BPS was sentenced to 28 months in prison.

She previously pleaded guilty to all four serious charges against her, concerning fraud by abuse of position and false accounting.

You may be aware that subsequently, it came to light that Ms Sander had several previous convictions for similar offences.

At the time of her employment in 2018, the BPS used an external agency to perform reference checks for new employees and they did not detect that she had provided fraudulent references.

Since 2019, the BPS's own HR team now carries out all reference checks on potential BPS employees. This is part of a range of measures we have taken to prevent a recurrence of what happened. 

As we reported in our Annual Accounts for 2020, the total amount defrauded was just over £70,000.

The BPS has been able to recover the majority of the money through our insurance cover.

It is a sad fact that many organisations are targeted by individuals who are intent on committing fraud.

We are very clear that there are important lessons to learn from what has happened, and we want to reassure members of how seriously we have taken this.

It is our responsibility to ensure that we have robust financial controls in place to ensure any wrongdoing or attempted fraud is detected straightaway.

The review of our processes identified areas where our controls and ways of working needed to be strengthened. 

We place the highest importance on protecting the society's funds and we have implemented strict new financial controls to safeguard against this happening again.

It is important to reiterate that the Chief Executive of the BPS was in no way party to the fraud committed by Ms Sander; a fact which was publicly accepted by the prosecution during the sentencing hearing.  

This is something that should not have happened.  It was a gross abuse of trust by someone who managed to evade the checks we had in place.

We're clear these checks were not good enough at the time but we are confident that the new protections we have put in place, with the guidance of experts, will ensure the society is better protected from those who wish us harm.