Plastic surgery, a diamond ring, escorts, council tax, a honeymoon, Viagra and a goat are just some of the outrageous expenses claims uncovered by a survey from Travelodge.
The budget hotel chain claimed UK workers are swindling their bosses of more than £1bn a year on spurious claims.
The survey of 3,000 British employees identified that the typical worker pocketed an extra £17 each month that they claimed, adding up to an extra £204 a year.
The top three expense scams exposed by respondents were:
- Asking for extra taxi receipts and claiming false taxi transport
- Adding extra mileage when submitting a claim
- Using a cheap restaurant to entertain a client, then using an expensive restaurant for personal use. When submitting the claim using the receipt for the expensive restaurant
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Despite the claims fiddling, only 8% of employees had been caught and sacked for fiddling their expenses.
Guy Parsons, Travelodge chief operating officer, said: “Even tweaks on everyday claims such as taxis, mileage and the odd bottle of wine can really rack up a business bill over the year. With the new financial year this is the ideal time for employers to adopt a low-cost culture, starting by reviewing their expenses policy.”
