Scarborough Council combats more than 80 fraud cases to save £26,000 of public funds

In the current 2022/23 financial year, 85 referrals of suspected fraud have been dealt with concerning council finances, with several warnings issued and up to £26,000 of funds saved.

A report detailing some the fraud cases will be discussed at an upcoming meeting of Scarborough Council’s Audit Committee on Thursday October 27.

It details some of the fraud investigations conducted on behalf of the authority by Veritau, an external Yorkshire-based consultancy.

According to the report, in one case a Whitby resident was found to have been “incorrectly” claiming a single-person tax discount for seven years.

The investigation found that during that time “the couple who owned the property had moved in together” and received a formal written warning, a financial penalty, and a bill for £3,000 which has now been paid.

Meanwhile, an investigation into an attempted Covid-19 grant fraud led to the owner of a property in Runswick Bay receiving a written warning and being forced to pay £5,000 in unpaid council tax.

The owner claimed his property was a holiday let in 2020 and successfully changed its status, which meant it was eligible for Small Business Rate Relief and no business rates were paid to the council.

However, according to the report, an investigation found that the property had never been used as a holiday let and was used as a residential dwelling.

Veritau said its investigative work has led to fraud savings of up to £26,000 being generated for Scarborough Council this year.

It adds that in total seven people received warnings about their conduct as a result of investigations by the counter-fraud team.

There are currently 18 cases under investigation while 26 cases have been closed in the current financial year.

In the last financial year, the council made more than 35,000 payments totalling more than £147 million, with fraud cases amounting to “less than 0.1 per cent of total grants paid”, according to a report presented to the Audit Committee in July.