Small business owners have been warned that there was over £2bn worth of reported fraud in the UK last year, according to new research released by business advisers BDO.

This is the first time that the sum has gone over the £2bn mark and is a 76% increase on last year's figures. BDO have predicted that, though shocking, the fraud figure is likely to keep rising - perhaps as high as £5bn a year.

The firm have predicted that fraud will become harder to combat as businesses see their cashflow tightening and focus on reducing costs.

"2009 saw the steepest increase since our report began seven years ago, with the average value of each fraud now over £5m compared to £1.8m in 2003," said Simon Bevan, BDO's head of fraud.