South Lanarkshire Council lost £¾m to fraud and theft

Jul 14 2011 Hamilton Advertiser

FRAUD and theft cost cash-strapped South Lanarkshire Council more than £750,000 last financial year.

The figure, almost three times that of 2009-10, includes a rise of almost £179,000 in benefit fraud and major increases in internal and external stealing.

Inflating the latest total is the £102,000 which the council last year lost to African conmen in a bank details scam.

Nine council employees either resigned or were disciplined as a result of investigations into fraud, according to a report compiled by the council’s chief executive Archie Strang.

In 2009-10, proven cases of fraud against the council numbered 101, featuring amounts totalling more than £271,000.

In the 12 months to the end of March, the number of proven cases was up to 151 and involved amounts adding up to more than £754,000.

Benefit fraud cases rose from 98 to 134 , with the amounts dishonestly obtained jumping from more than £248,000 in 2009-10 to over £428,000 last financial year.

Three-quarters of the cases led to formal cautions, penalties and prosecutions.

Last financial year, the 14 cases of thieving investigated by the council involved cash and items worth £134,000.

Eleven of the cases were categorised as “inside jobs” in which cash and goods worth over £80,000 went missing. These totals represent a massive increase on the comparable figures for 2009-10, when seven cases were investigated, resulting in losses to the council of £1871.

Last autumn, the Advertiser exclusively revealed how the council – who in February cut their budget by £25m and announced 340 job cuts – lost £102,000 in a scam. They paid cash into a bogus bank account set up by African fraudsters posing as genuine council suppliers. Just weeks after the discovery of the scam, the council’s £120,000-a-year director of finance, Linda Hardie, went on ‘gardening leave’ and at the end of March retired aged 50 with a £300,000 severance deal.

A council spokesman said: “The council take the issue of fraud in any form extremely seriously and overall there has been a significant improvement in recovery levels. This is due to the increased focus on debt recovery and raising fraud awareness across the council.”