Alpha warns of £2.5m fraud

Airport and airline retail and services group Alpha believes it has been stung by a third party fraud that could have cost it up to£2.5 million.

At its pre-close trading update, the company said: 'If this information proves to be correct, it may result in a significant exceptional loss to the group. Initial investigations show the potential loss is of the order of£700,000, but it could be as high as£2.5 million. The investigation is ongoing and the board anticipates having a clearer view of the size of the suspected loss by the time of the preliminary announcement.'

Pre-tax profit before exceptional items and impairment costs for the year will be slightly ahead of last year's£17.4 million. Turnover will be more than 12 per cent ahead ahead of last year.

UK retail sales grew 8 per cent, up on last year's increase of 7.4 per cent. Like-for-like sales increased by 6.5 per cent, with transaction spend per duty-free shopper up 5 per cent. However, the company said that increased numbers of passengers had not translated into a similarly increased number of shoppers and warned that UK retail profits will be significantly lower than last year.