A fifth of company drivers admit to exaggerating expense claims, according to research from GlobalExpense.

For fleet managers, the telling statistic is that out of all expenses, business mileage is the most likely to be exaggerated.

With 76% of those drivers surveyed agreeing that exaggerating expense claims was ‘acceptable’ when the mileage rate paid by an employer doesn’t cover the actual car and fuel costs the temptation to falsify claims clearly exists.

Managing director of GlobalExpense, David Vine, suggests that this isn’t going to go away in the near future. “The further the country falls into recession and people feel the pinch, the more employees are being tempted to fiddle their expenses,” he said.

Meryl Gilbert, Arval business development director – fuel, said: “Fleet managers must have processes in place to mitigate against this kind of behaviour. The best thing that they can do is to implement a fuel card policy which takes any uncertainty out of fuel claims.”