IDENTIFYING a fraudster can be almost impossible so putting the correct checks and balances in place is vital. That was what 80 delegates at the AO Hall/Training Agency Risky Business conference learned.

‘We had a very good level of speaker and it seemed to be very successful and was enthusiastically met by all the delegates,’ said AO Hall partner Advocate Alison Ozanne.

‘Fraud is very much in the press at the moment from the collapse of Enron to the children who were [allegedly] cheated out of their World Cup tickets.

‘It just shows that there is no blueprint for a fraudster.’

The conference boasted rogue trader Nick Leeson, the man who brought down Barings, as its pre-dinner speaker.

‘He got the conference off to a really good start because his talk was a really good precursor for what all the speakers talked about,’ said Advocate Ozanne.

‘The theme of his talk was that he had made mistakes and had done wrong but that mistakes had been made around him and that there were no proper checks and balances.’

Part of what made it possible for Mr Leeson to carry on his fraudulent activities at Barings was the error account, 88888, in which he hid his losses.

At his previous employer, it would have been discovered the next day but it took three years before anyone at Barings pulled him up about his activities.

By that time he had lost £800m.

The seminar was opened by Guernsey Financial Services Commission director-general Peter Neville, who looked at the cost of fraud.

Speakers included Louise Delahunty, a partner at Peters and Peters in London, who gave a UK legal overview of fraud, and Will Kenyon, a partner in forensic services at PricewaterhouseCoopers on the detection and prevention of fraud in businesses.

Also speaking was consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Richard Taylor who looked inside the mind of a fraudster and concluded that there was no blueprint or typical one and that there were a variety of reasons for committing the act.

The conference was staged in conjunction with the Training Agency.

‘They were fantastic, particularly Professor Richard Conder and Fiona Naftel,’ said Advocate Ozanne.

‘They were very encouraging and supportive.’

Delegate Trevor Kelham, a director at Credit Suisse Trust, said it had been a real coup for AO Hall to secure Mr Leeson as the pre-dinner speaker.

‘It was a brave decision and carefully thought out and set the scene from the delegates’ perspective,’ he said.

‘The quality of speakers from all fields was exceptional and it really helped having those kinds of experts.’