Concerns have been raised as to the vulnerability of service charge trust funds help by Peverel/Firstport.
This time the problem is because of the number of computer hackers who see the 200m pounds of service charge funds as a very tempting target.
The criminals seek out companies they believe to have poor accounting systems, which means they can take out sums of money which may not even be noticed by the company.
Though directors are supposed to have insurance that covers fraud, given their admittance to the OFT of a price fixing fraud, claiming might prove rather problematical
There does exist a specific policy designed to cover against hacking fraud, it is not known if Firstport have this cover.
Disturbingly, service charge trust funds are only protected from the bank using the funds to offset company debts due to the bank.
