West Suffolk Council falls victim to £52,000 fraud

West Suffolk Council lost £52,000 in the "mandate fraud", a meeting heard

A local authority has admitted falling victim to a £52,000 scam.

West Suffolk Council said it been defrauded of an amount equivalent to a 0.5% council tax increase.

The scam, described as "complex", involved fraudsters hacking into suppliers' emails to send an email to customers, including the council.

Diane Hind, Labour cabinet member for resources, said the so-called mandate fraud was a "prevalent" crime that was "very hard to solve".

It was revealed on Thursday at a Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee meeting.

It heard measures had been put in place to prevent further incidents, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Ms Hind said: "Although we did catch the fraud and stopped further funds going out, unfortunately this was after payment had been made.

"We have been in contact with the company whose security was breached and the email supplier, as well as strengthening and re-enforcing our own practices.

"This is a prevalent crime that is very hard to solve and prosecute and we would want to see much more focus nationally on this."

The meeting heard the missing £52,000 could be equivalent to a 0.5% increase in council tax for the next financial year.

Nick Clarke, Conservative councillor, said: "It sticks in everyone's throat a little bit when 0.5% of that raise will be to cover up this fraud event.

"Yes, these fraudsters are very clever but this is a considerable sum of money."

However, he acknowledged it could have happened to "the best well-run organisations".

Council leader Cliff Waterman assured residents the scam and recent cancellation of the Western Way leisure centre project, along with other savings being made, would have the least impact on services and council tax.

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