Fraud Prevention: Scarborough Council saves almost £30,000 as fraudsters target public funds

The authority’s Audit Committee received an update on ongoing efforts to prevent fraud across Scarborough Council at a meeting on Thursday January 26.

According to the council’s auditor, Veritau, its investigative work has led to “fraud savings of £28,000 being generated” this financial year for the authority.

This is a reported increase in counter-fraud savings of £2,000 since October 2022 when the auditor reported having saved £26,000 of council funds.

The Veritau investigative team has so far received 115 referrals of suspected fraud covering areas including council tax, council tax support, business rates, and parking.

In the current financial year, 30 cases have been concluded while 21 cases are currently under investigation.

Nine members of the public have also received warnings about their conduct as a result of investigations by the counter-fraud team.

Cllr Andrew Backhouse said: “The report states that the investigative work covers such areas as council tax, business rates, and parking.

“I’m just curious as to how there’s fraud committed with parking.”

Connor Munro, assistant director of Veritau’s audit assurance, said that the parking fraud investigations were related to “blue badge misuse”.

Members of the audit committee also raised questions regarding the cost of undertaking the investigations in light of savings and preventative work.

Cllr Rich Maw said: “I suspect that by having a strong counter fraud team we are looking at prevention rather than a cure because the investigative work has so far led to savings of £28,000 for the council.

“But I have to expect that it costs us far more than that to run the department.”

Cllr Maw added: “So, how is it equated or is there a figure or even an estimate of what we might have saved by having this team doing that work? Is that figure there?”

Veritau’s Mr Munro responded to Cllr Maw, stating that he was familiar with the type of question but added that “it is difficult to quantify”.

Mr Munro said: “A lot of the work, as you say, is with the awareness raising and the deterrence has an intrinsic value to it but I wouldn’t say we have sought to give that a numeric value.

“These responsibilities had perhaps been part of [council] officers’ responsibilities in the past alongside other aspects of their work and they have been freed up to focus on their routine day-to-day."

Veritau is owned by nine local authorities including Scarborough Council and North Yorkshire County Council and provides shared audit, counter fraud, and information governance services.

Mr Munro added: “Clearly, being a shared service we would reasonably and fairly say we offer value for money from that perspective.”