|
|
 |
| |
Council officer sacked after fraud inquiry
Arrest after an alleged £400,000 scam
THE Town Hall has investigated a fraud possibly worth close to £500,000 in one of its own departments.
Officials said that a temporary member of staff had been sacked after an internal investigation.
They fear around £400,000 of council funds may have been part of an insider scam.
The council is not commenting further on the case because police are involved and an arrest has been made.
The Town Hall has been under pressure to do more to protect itself against internal fraud in recent years after being hit by the scandal of two high-profile cases involving its own staff.
In 2006, a trusted a finance officer was jailed for squirrelling away £1.7million of public cash with the help of an accomplice – a swindle that went unnoticed for 10 years.
Then, in March 2007, a senior finance manager was also sent to prison after pocketing money he was supposed to be looking after on behalf of vulnerable residents unable to take care of their financial affairs.
Both cases were met with public anger and in the latter case, there was a protest demonstration outside a courtroom.
The existence of the latest investigation, which dates back to last September, emerged last week in the annual report of the council’s Internal Audit Special Investigations Team – the Town Hall unit which probes benefit fraud, monitors covert surveillance of residents, and investigates council staff accused of wrongdoing.
The report showed that in the past year the team had investigated 798 benefits cases, seized 208 disabled parking blue badges, and referred five council staff to the police.
It also describes a “carefully co-ordinated operation” involving street surveillance and directed CCTV against a resident later prosecuted for using his father’s disabled parking badge. |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
