Public Sector

A hotel owner has been jailed for falsely claiming almost £140,000 from Government schemes to support businesses during Covid.

Shahid Naseeb Ahmed, 42, took advantage of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme and also the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme while running the Merchants Hotel in Back Piccadilly in the centre of Manchester.

Barnsley Council is supporting Fraud Awareness Week from Monday in a bid to minimise the impact the crime has on residents.

Fraud remains the most common type of crime experienced by victims in England and Wales, costing the UK billions of pounds every year and increasing year on year.

https://www.wearebarnsley.com/news/15975/council-supports-fight-against-fraud

Conditions of disclosure of information by HMRC and Cabinet Office for the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) Digital Economy Act (DEA) pilot.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-fraud-initiative-hmrc-and-local-authority-counter-fraud-pilot/data-usage-agreement-national-fraud-initiative-hmrc-and-local-authority-counter-fraud-pilot

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) could be checking up on claimants bank and social media accounts as it attempts to crack down on benefit fraud.

Figures suggest billions of pounds could be wrongly claimed by 2027/

When he was jailed for two-and-a-half years in March Mohammed Ikram, a 36-year-old married man, claimed the scam was aimed at paying off debts he had run up operating a care home, but Deputy Circuit Judge Timothy Clayson said the majority of the offending was motivated by greed.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/former-yorkshire-councillor-jailed-eat-034500501.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr

A new task force has been assembled by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to help those who are missing out on benefits because of Universal Credit claimants. A total of 600 new staff have been recruited to fight fraud and errors in the system.

According to Civil Service World, the Swindon-based employees will be part of a team carrying out "targeted case reviews" of Universal Credit claims across the country. It is hoped by 2027 to 2028 that fraud across the benefits system will be drastically cut down, reports BirminghamLive.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/dwp-universal-credit-fraud-crackdown-as-5bn-is-stolen-in-false-claims/ar-AA1icU4d?ocid=socialshare

The Department for Work and Pensions is setting up a new base in Swindon that will house 600 staff tasked with cutting down on fraud and error in Universal Credit payments.

https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/dwp-new-base-universal-credit-fraud-error-skforce

She said a Labour government would appoint a ‘Covid corruption commissioner’ to ‘chase down those who have ripped off the taxpayer’.

Rachel Reeves echoed Margaret Thatcher as she vowed to go after those who profited from the “carnival of waste” during the Covid-19 pandemic.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2023/10/09/rachel-reeves-echoes-thatcher-as-she-vows-to-recover-money-lost-to-fraud-during-pandemic/

A former prominent headteacher who abused his position of trust by defrauding a Black Country school out of thousands of pounds has been ordered to pay up to the tune of almost £200,000.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/crime/2023/10/06/former-headteacher-of-dudley-school-ordered-to-pay-over-190000-back-for-fraud/

A string of posts on social media have claimed that Rishi Sunak wrote off £14.9 billion lost to personal protective equipment (PPE) fraud.

One user on X (formerly Twitter) posted on 11 September: “Rishi Sunak has decided that the £14.9bn of PPE fraud cannot be investigated and has written it all off.”