Organised crime is costing businesses up to five per cent of their turnover and a Sussex forensic accountant said it was the fastest growing area of his business.

Peter Silk, a member of the South Eastern Society of Chartered Accountants, based in Hastings, said organised crime was fuelling a rise in company fraud and a lack of co-ordination between Government departments was making the problem worse.

George Staple QC, chairman of the Fraud Advisory Panel, said: "Fraud is more than just fiddling the books. It's a crime increasingly linked to corruption and money laundering and conducted by organised criminals.

"Our traditional system of checks and balances is failing to cope."

Mr Staple, a former director of the Serious Fraud Office, said the overall cost of fraud was thought to be running at about £14 billion a year and was viewed as a major crime threat.

In its latest report, the panel highlighted what was described as a crisis of resources in police fraud squads.

It said squads were led by officers of lower rank and less experience than in the past and most squads had reduced in size with some having been abolished.

On average, each officer has a 'live' caseload of 3.7 cases with an estimated value of £900,000, according to recent research.

The panel, founded and supported by the Institute of Chartered Accountants, is calling for a Home Office review to consider whether additional resources should be directed to chief constables or other bodies.

Useful short-term steps would be to increase manpower and skills by offering short-term contracts to recently retired fraud squad officers and introducing a more flexible approach to the rotation of senior investigators.

Mr Silk said: "Fraud is the fastest growing area of forensic accounting. Cases of fraud involving more than £100,000 have doubled in the past ten years and the Treasury estimates fraud losses are now running at about five per cent of business turnover."

He said the Government was right to take economic crime seriously but pointed out that 16 departments and agencies were responsible for dealing with the problem.

He said: "There is a fragmentation of perspective, policy and institutions that allows fraud to grow. It is worth remembering that society's response to rising crime before the Nineties showed too little imagination and involved too little multi-agency thinking.

"We must not make the same mistake twice. Organised crime is immensely difficult to eradicate."

The panel has now called for the creation of a National Economic Crime Commission dedicated to finding a holistic, long-term way of dealing with the problem.

It should consist of senior people from the world of business, the police and the Government.

The commission would serve as a high profile forum for debate, monitor the work of public bodies and provide recommendations to Government and public agencies.