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Professor David Wilson investigates the audacious type of fraud known as ‘white collar crime’, where professionals in positions of trust and authority turn to theft and embezzlement.

He explores the extraordinary case of the ‘Laird of Tomintoul’. This involved a financial officer in the Metropolitan Police called Anthony Williams who in the 1980s and 90s stole a total of £5m pounds from a covert police anti-terrorism budget, and used the proceeds to invest in property and businesses in the small Grampian village of Tomintoul. He styled himself the ‘Laird’, lived the Highland high-life, and employed many people in the area. David meets a local from the village who explains how no-one questioned Williams’s credentials or wealth until, one day, he was arrested for fraud. He was later convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.

Williams was a classic example of a ‘white collar’ criminal. He was so trusted that he could make himself sole signatory on a large bank account, and was able to simply write himself cheques with zero oversight. In the studio David hears exactly how this was possible, how he got away with it for so long, and how he was caught, from fraud investigator Peter Tickner. Peter was subsequently tasked with tightening up financial systems at the Met so something like this couldn’t happen again.

To get a wider and up-to-date perspective on corporate fraud, David also interviews Jude McCorry, CEO of the Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland. Jude explains how technology is allowing international fraudsters to aggressively target individuals and organisations in a variety of ways in order to steal or extort money from them. She also highlights what we can all do to be on guard against these threats now and in the future.