A total of 448 financially-related crimes were reported to police last year, which involved some $11.5 million in misappropriated funds and goods.

Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade released the figures for 2012 on Monday.

According to the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) Business Crimes Chart 2012, there were 138 cases of fraud; 135 cases of stealing by reason of service; 106 cases of stealing by way of employment; 21 cases of forgery; 47 forged document cases and 1 major case of stealing.

Fraud cases accounted for $6,592,256; stealing by reason of service accounted for $746,567; stealing by reason of employment accounted for $4,138,476. Major stealing accounted for $31,000.

Police did not provide figures for forgery and forged documents.

In total, those crimes totalled $11,508,229.

Police only managed to recover $207,775 of that figure.

The majority of these financial crimes occurred in September.

According to the report, a total of 269 people were arrested in 2012 for these crimes, however, only a total of 155 were charged, the majority of whom were men.

Police said in 2012 they noticed Colombian nationals using fraudulent credit cards to purchase expensive jewellery.

Ten matters were reported and 23 Colombian nationals were arrested for misappropriating $124,179 in goods.

The items included expensive jewellery, watches and clothing goods.

Police quickly noticed that almost of all of the suspects arrived onboard Copa Airlines, which began servicing The Bahamas with direct flights from Panama in mid 2011.

As a result of investigations, a number of suspects were charged in court, entered guilty pleas and were deported from The Bahamas.

Police recovered $207,775 in goods and funds.

Authorities also seized $23,600 in counterfeit Bahamian currency and $13,200 in counterfeit US currency.

“Counterfeit remains a burden on the business community, which continues to result in the loss of profit and merchandise,” the police report said.

The police said it is determined to educate the wider community through seminars and workshops designed to inform members of the public and the employees on ways to identify counterfeit currency and current trends.