Lincolnshire County Council thwarts £1.1m fraud attempts

The authority says it has thwarted fraudulent attempts to redirect £1.1m of council coffers to other bank accounts

Four "high-value" fraud attempts which could have cost Lincolnshire taxpayers £1.1m have been prevented, a council has said.

Lincolnshire County Council said it had seen a number of mandate fraud attempts, where legitimate payments are redirected to other bank accounts.

The attempts to redirect council money took place between April and September.

A council counter-fraud report said no police investigation had taken place as no actual financial loss had occurred.

Principal investigator Gary Douglas told a meeting of the council's audit committee: "The risk of fraud remains high, which we remind staff of on a regular basis.

"Since April 2022, there has been an increase in direct mandate fraud - four or five in last three months alone.

"We have prevented over £1m of potential fraud against the council.

"Contractor Serco alert the council's fraud team every time they get attacked, and we will liaise with Lincolnshire Police."

'Zero-tolerance approach'

Mr Douglas said the council was currently dealing with eight cases, which required significant resources.

"We have trained our team to gather the required evidence so that we can go to police with a fully investigated case," he said.

Mr Douglas was asked by councillors whether police were giving enough support, and acknowledged that the force had limited resources to tackle fraud.

However, he said the council had appealed against one case where the Crown Prosecution Service had decided not to take action.

The counter-fraud report also revealed that Lincolnshire Police were currently investigating five other cases, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"All of these are high-value cases, and we anticipate that these will result in prosecution and recoveries of losses," the report said.

"This further demonstrates our zero-tolerance approach and desire to ensure that perpetrators of fraud receive the appropriate sanctions."

The council said it expected £340,000 to be recovered across two cases if convictions were secured.