Public Sector

A father and daughter who secured £75,000 in Covid Bounce Back Loans for their two Merseyside car parts businesses have received suspended prison sentences for fraud after claiming a further £65,000 they were never entitled to.

Catherine Deegan received legitimate loans worth £25,000 and £50,000 for Bootle Cars & Commercials Limited and the almost identically named Bootle Car and Commercial Limited in May 2020.

Keith Williamson and Narisa Gore from Alvarez & Marsal, discuss the increasing challenges of public sector fraud and the potential of artificial intelligence tools to mitigate them

Tackling public sector fraud with AI tools | Open Access Government

Public sector fraud in Scotland has risen by almost 50 per cent according to Audit Scotland.

A data matching exercise, part of the UK-wide National Fraud Initiative (NFI), detected £21.5 million worth of fraud and payment errors across the Scottish public sector.

A Derby-based business consultant who fraudulently obtained two Covid loans worth a combined £100,000 has been handed a suspended sentence.

Imran Mushtaq was the sole director of IZ Business Consultants Limited when he applied for two Bounce Back Loans for the company in June 2020.

A data matching exercise detected £21.5 million worth of fraud and payment errors across the Scottish public sector.

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) helps detect and prevent fraud and error by matching data sets across public bodies. Savings are identified, for example, by checking eligibility for council tax discounts against the electoral register. The initiative runs every two years.

Adult social care was the biggest cause of potential fraud investigated at Redcar and Cleveland Council in the last 12 months, a report has revealed.

The organisation Veritau, which delivers a counter-fraud service on behalf of the local authority, said 54 reports of potential fraud were referred to it in in the 2023/24 financial year. As a result its team completed 16 investigations into alleged frauds with adult social care representing almost 39% of all cases, the majority.

Anotorious fraudster who flew round the world and splashed out on fine dining in the West End while owing taxpayers tens of millions of pounds in an unpaid court order is facing prison after being convicted of a Covid loan scam.

Gerald Smith, who has already served two prison sentences for fraud, was found guilty at Southwark crown court of cheating the public by taking out a £50,000 “bounce-back” loan during the pandemic to pay the legal fees of one of his closest associates.

A new Black Country MP has asked her first question in the House of Commons.

Sonia Kumar, the new Labour MP for Dudley, asked what the new government would do to ensure money was not wasted when buying equipment for the NHS.

She told the house how her own experience as an NHS physiotherapist during the Covid-19 pandemic had led to her witnessing how 'crony contracts' resulted in resources being wasted.

In the last four years, over 200 potential fraud attempts totalling more than £2.1 million have been detected by Nottinghamshire County Council.

The figure has been published in the county council’s annual fraud report, which also describes how specialist council teams have worked to stop fraud attempts since 2020/21.

A Bristol builder who overstated the income from his construction companies to secure two Covid Bounce Back Loans totalling £100,000 has been handed a suspended jaul sentence.

James Leslie, 45, of Dundry, was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for 18 months, when he appeared at Bristol Crown Court this week.