POLICE are alerting businesses to a recent increase in company identity theft resulting in fraudsters falsely obtaining goods on credit.

The thieves download documents from the Companies House website that enable them to change a company's registered address.

Goods are then obtained on credit and delivered to the newly registered company address – usually an empty or multi-occupied house.

Businesses are encouraged to be on the look out for anything suspicious. Disruption to company mail could be an indicator that a business has been a victim of an address change.

Companies that are concerned can also check their registered details with Companies House.

In the light of this increased trend, companies can now enrol with the Companies House monitoring system which initiates an alert that there has been an address change.