Articles

Corporate Identity Theft

Personal identity theft is an increasing problem often reported in the popular press.

Less well reported but just as serious is the increasing phenomenon of corporate identity theft which enables the thief to commit acts of fraud in the stolen company’s name.

The fraud is surprisingly simple to commit for those inclined to do so requiring the fraudster only to amend the registered office address and directors’ details of the company at Companies House to those used by the fraudster. The fraudster is then able to carry out transactions in the name of the company and its directors which, to anyone who checks the registration details at Company’s House, appear to be valid.

If corporate identity theft is not spotted and corrected by the company quickly enough, premises and other assets of the company may be disposed of to innocent purchasers. It is costly and not always be possible to recover these assets.

In one extreme case, overseas assets of a subsidiary company were sold off by the fraudster and armed security guards of the new owner used to exclude the company’s true officers. Injunctive proceedings were brought by the company just in time to prevent permanent harm to the company.

With the abolition of the requirement for title deeds for registered property in England and Wales, the risk will only continue to grow.


How can you protect your company against the risks?

The best and only effective way to protect your company against corporate identity theft is to regularly check and, where necessary, amend your company’s filing details at Companies House.

Companies House is sufficiently worried about this growing problem that it has recently launched a monitoring service whereby subscribers receive an email notification of any new filings for the chosen company; this may be your company or any other companies in which you are interested. Subscribers to its electronic filing services can also subscribe to a secure service offering added protection against corporate identity theft.


Contact Companies House for further details of these services.

If you would like to discuss any issues relating to this or any other area of your business, then please contact Austin Blackburn ablackburn@nash.co.uk, an associate solicitor at Nash & Co Solicitors specialising in intellectual property and business law issues.