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Wednesday, February 12, 2025

£2.1 million in fraud attempts stopped by Nottinghamshire council teams

In the last four years, over 200 potential fraud attempts totalling more than £2.1 million have been detected by Nottinghamshire County Council.

The figure has been published in the county council’s annual fraud report, which also describes how specialist council teams have worked to stop fraud attempts since 2020/21.

During the most recent financial year (2023/24), the county council identified 44 potential fraudulent cases totalling £411,016 – with the number and value of frauds prevented and detected by the council in the last four years including:

  • 2020/21 – £387,832 – 64 cases
  • 2021/22 – £670,807 – 45 cases
  • 2022/23 – £705,359 – 52 cases
  • 2023/24 – £411,016 – 44 cases

As part of the county council’s ongoing work, it has moved to reassure residents that the county council has put in place measures to safeguard public money against falling into the hands of fraudsters and cybercriminals.

In the past year, the measures have helped to identify attempted activities such as changes to bank details, phishing scams, rent fraud, deprivation of assets and the fraudulent request or misuse of resident parking schemes.

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Robust controls have reduced the risk of fraud, whilst a counter-fraud culture has been promoted and staff encouraged to take part in counter-fraud training.

Councillor Philip Owen, chairman of the county council’s Governance and Ethics Committee, praised the hard work and diligence of staff as part of the ongoing fight against fraud.

He said: “As a council it is vital that we do everything we can to stop these con artists and cybercriminals who are using underhand and, very often, sophisticated methods to target taxpayers’ money for their own gain.

“Therefore, I am delighted that the robust measures which have been put in place have once again resulted in hundreds of potential frauds worth millions being prevented.

“We take a zero-tolerance approach to attempts at fraud, and we will use the full force of the law against fraudsters, not hesitating to pursue prosecutions.”

The county council’s proactive work comes as analysis by the Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative Report (NFI) shows that fraud is estimated to account for 40% of all crime committed across the United Kingdom.

In the period from April 2020 to March 2022, the NFI reported that organisations nationally – which included the county council – detected and prevented an estimated £416.8m of fraud, overpayments and errors.

Councillor Owen added: “Despite the success of the county council over the last four years, we can’t rest on our laurels – attempts at fraud happen every day in every part of the UK.

“Unscrupulous fraudsters will unfortunately always be a risk, but our excellent specialist staff are ready and waiting to stop any attempts to steal taxpayers’ money from the county council.”

The full annual fraud report was presented to county councillors at the latest Governance and Ethics Committee meeting on Wednesday, 24 July.

Residents can check out the county council’s fraud awareness advice on its website to help protect themselves and their loved ones from scams.

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