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Bumped up mileage claims cost companies millions

Inflated mileage claims fraud cost UK employers 300 million every year.

According to expenses management specialist PremierEnvoy, UK businesses pay out almost £6 billion in expenses every year and more than half of this is made up of mileage claims.

PremierEnvoy advises employers to give staff adequate tools to calculate their mileage and stamp out the practice of overstating journeys.

The general manager of PremierEnvoy, Graham Whitehouse, said: "In many companies it is still relatively easy for employees to ‘bump up' their salaries by claiming reimbursement for more miles than they've actually travelled.

"Too many businesses accept employees regularly round up their mileage claims, or include detours for personal reasons, but this is typically costing them around 10% of their total mileage budgets. In larger businesses and public-sector organisations, where mileage can constitute as much as 75% of expense bills, that can easily equate to hundreds of thousands of pounds a year."