FRAUD detection software company Altia-ABM is continuing its international expansion by establishing an Australian outpost and drawing up plans for a potential South American launch.

The firm, which was formed via the 2016 merger of Glasgow business Altia Solutions and Nottingham-based ABM, has opened in Melbourne to help it target markets across the Asia-Pacific region.

It comes after the firm, whose technology helps authorities detect money laundering, expanded into Canada with the launch of an office in Toronto last year.

The firm’s managing director Ian Watson said as Altia-ABM already generates about a tenth of its £5 million turnover in Australia it made sense to have a presence on the ground.

“The time zone is a killer trying to work from here,” he said.

He added that following its Canada launch the firm had seen a significant uptick in the amount of work it was being invited to tender for and the aim is to replicate that in Australia.

“The software we are selling is not like Mars bars,” Mr Watson said. “A lot has to go to tender and it has multi-level public sign-offs.

“Being there we can do some degree of regionalisation of the software and having someone there in the same timezone really helps.”

The company’s software is typically used by police forces and other investigatory authorities to read vast quantities of documents, such as bank statements, to determine whether a crime such as money laundering has been committed.

In Canada the firm has hired retired police officer George Harrison to ensure the software is up to date with all local policing terminology. It hopes to do the same in Australia too.

“If we can find an Australian George we will,” Mr Watson said.

He added that as the firm is doing increasing amounts of work for authorities in Panama, Colombia and Peru it is likely it will also look to open in South America too.

“There’s been a realisation, especially in police and investigatory authorities, that their budgets are being cut but crime isn’t going away so they need to use IT effectively,” Mr Watson said. “Our systems do the job.

“The British National Crime Agency helps those countries with their approach to criminal investigations by using the British model.

“We’ve put our systems into a few places in South America. The first year in Panama was paid for by the UK, but this year their anti-corruption authorities have not only carried on paying for the software themselves but have dramatically increased their licences.

“They have seen how good it is for their investigations because if you can break the money chain you can disrupt serious and organised crime.”

Mr Watson said because of the contract in Panama the business is receiving enquiries from lots of other countries in the region.

“Because of that we’ll probably end up setting up somewhere in South America, probably in Colombia,” he said.

The business, which recently appointed former Derbyshire Police chief constable Mick Creedon as a special adviser to its board, is targeting turnover of between £5.5m and £6m in the current financial year.

Despite the firm being just a few years old Mr Watson said it is already profitable, with all of its profits being invested back into further developing its software. As part of this it is starting to develop systems that can help companies deal with internal investigations.

“This is for when companies are dealing with counterfeiting or whistleblowing where everything has to be confidential and secure,” Mr Watson said.