Council pledges to draw a line under fraud case

A fraud investigation is ongoing relating to the council's housing department

The new chief executive at a council where a fraud investigation is underway says he wants to “account for every penny” and learn from what has gone wrong.

A fraud investigation looking at Guildford Borough Council’s housing department was launched by police in November.

The new council boss says he wants to "draw a line" under the matter.

On Thursday, the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit confirmed a man in his 50s had been arrested in the ongoing investigation.

In February it was escalated to a regional organised crime team, due to the “size and complexity” of the investigation, according to Surrey Police.

Mr Wrobel, who started the role ahead of schedule in February, says officers want to "learn from and put right" everything that has gone wrong.

He says he wants to “draw a line” under the issue as quickly as possible.

Mr Wrobel, whose role is shared with neighbouring Waverley Borough Council, said: “This is about doing the right thing, not the easy thing.

“What we want to do is make sure that we understand every element of what has gone wrong, that we can account for every penny and make sure that we deal with it.”

Mr Wrobel said the matter had highlighted issues “around financial controls more generally” at the council.

He said across the council, financial controls and systems that he would expect to find weren’t “quite where they ought to be”.

He said the council would continue to work with police to make sure they had what they needed and that internal investigations were “proceeding apace”.

Mr Wrobel added: “I want to deal with those and bring all of that to a conclusion.

“The most important thing anyone has is their home, we understand the value of that.”