Public Sector

A Thanet district councillor has been referred to Action Fraud for allegedly not declaring a settlement agreement with the council.

Cllr Steve Albon (Lab), cabinet member for cleansing and coastal services at Thanet District Council (TDC), was referred to the fraud reporting service by the authority’s standards assessment sub-committee.

https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2023/09/29/thanet-councillor-referred-to-action-fraud-simply-as-a-precaution/

An annual report by Veritau said 20 investigations were completed as a result relating to social care fraud, misuse of disabled blue badges, debt evasion, abuse of small business rate relief and alleged covid-19 business grant fraud. More than £25,000 worth of funds fraudulently obtained by members of the public were identified for potential recovery by the council.

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/more-40-suspected-fraud-incidents-073618553.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr

Department for Work and Pensions permanent secretary Peter Schofield has warned MPs that a huge push to reduce the level of benefit fraud – involving thousands of new recruits – will be offset by a projected 5%-a-year growth in illegitimate claims.

https://www.civilserviceworld.com//news/article/dwp-perm-sec-flags-difficulty-of-reducing-benefit-fraud-to-prepandemic-levels

The Public Sector Fraud Authority has claimed to have surpassed its target for saving money for taxpayers over its first year in operation.

It has reported savings of £311 million compared with a target of £180 million when it was launched in August of last year, attributing the success to the use of AI and data analytics, the comparison of datasets from more than 1,000 public bodies, and the use of counter fraud flags.

A fraud investigation has launched at Guildford Borough Council following “an issue” within the housing maintenance department.

It is reported staff have been suspended, contracts terminated and possible fraud is being looked in to.

A former MP who fraudulently used taxpayers' money to fund his cocaine habit has had a bid to appeal his sentence denied.

Jared O'Mara, who was the MP for Sheffield Hallam, was jailed for four years in February after being convicted of six counts of fraud.

The 41-year-old had tried to claim £52,000 of taxpayers' money for constituency work that was never done and jobs that did not exist.

Focus must shift to prevention, PAC warns, after the body responsible for overseeing government expenditure calls for action to tackle currently untracked fraud and error losses of potentially tens of billions of pounds a year.

https://www.icaew.com/insights/viewpoints-on-the-news/2023/sep-2023/government-must-lead-from-top-on-fraud-pac-urges

Drivers are being warned to avoid fraudulent garages who perform illegal MOTs, as the government is cracking down on them.

Total counts of MOT Fraud reached 1324 last year, 2021-2022, 710 of those, were the most serious cases relating to dishonesty and negligence, a 102% increase from those found in 2017-2018.

https://londonlovesbusiness.com/motorists-are-being-warned-to-avoid-fraudulent-garages-who-perform-illegal-mots/

The government has already had to foot a £7.4bn bill to settle bad loans with banks claiming a further £1.13bn, amid an “uncomfortable” level of fraud.

With £2.23bn more in arrears and £750m in default, taxpayers could be on the hook for total of £11.5bn from Covid-era loans, according to figures from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The government is “flying blind” on its exposure to fraud, which has quadrupled since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, MPs have said.

The cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also said that while most of the £21bn of taxpayers’ money lost to fraud during the pandemic is unlikely to be recovered, the government should be doing more to recoup what it can.