Council collars the benefit fraudsters

Bogus benefit claims worth more than £500,000 have been identified over the past year by the Royal Borough.

The council's benefit fraud team, helped by a new dedicated anti-fraud computer system, pin-pointed £557,000 worth of false claims - £100,000 more than the previous year.

A total of 236 investigations were completed during the year, resulting in 18 prosecutions, 33 administrative penalties and 10 formal cautions. The team also stopped a number of fraudulent claims before they were paid.

The council said measures have already been put in place to recover ‘every penny’ of the overpayments.

Cases investigated by the team came from referrals from the public and from the matching of computerised information with other government agencies, as well as those referred to the team by council staff.

Cllr David Hilton, cabinet member for finance, said: "People who commit benefit fraud are in effect stealing from council taxpayers and it is in all our interests to stamp it out."

Anyone who has information on suspected benefit fraud can contact the Royal Borough’s free and confidential Beat the Cheat hotline on 0500 353300.