While not condoning fraudulent use of company credit cards by employees, I cannot help but think that the companies who operate this system must share part of the blame.

When I was a salesman, my claims for out-of-pocket expenses would not be reimbursed unless accompanied by receipts.

In order to stop ‘fiddles’, it was also part of the office manger’s job to randomly ring up hotels, garages or restaurants to verify the amount you had claimed.

Later, as a warehouse manager, all my orders had to be countersigned by a director, and the accountant would not pay the invoices until proof of delivery was shown.

Even then it was not unknown for spot checks to be made. If my stock did not match the amount I had signed for, I then had to show who the product had been sold to.

Although they were extremely effective in controlling finances, systems like those I have mentioned came to be considered old fashioned, time consuming, not ‘green’ or in keeping with the IT age we live in, and were discontinued in favour of company credit cards.

Pick up a paper today and I guarantee there will be a report about their fraudulent use.

The larger the organisation – and the civil service particularly springs to mind here – the more widespread and out of control the problem.

Misuse by those in the public sector means that once again it is the taxpayer who picks up the bill, while in the private sector it has brought companies to the verge of bankruptcy. It is no use the powers that be or company bosses shedding oceans of crocodile tears about money being short if they are not prepared to put in better systems to control it.

D Walker, Barrowford.