A CRACKDOWN on benefit cheats in Middlesbrough has uncovered almost £1m in fraudulent claims.

The town council’s benefit fraud team has had its most successful year ever for detecting overpayments.

Nearly £400,000 was uncovered in the course of 354 successful investigations.

A separate team of review officers, who check the on-going claims entitlement, discovered the council was being duped into paying out £593,126 too much, a total of false 3,085 claims.

Between them, the two teams identified a total of £991,620 in overpayments as a result of either fraud or error.

Mike Whitehead, Investigations Manager, said cheating benefit claimants needed to get the message that the council was not a soft touch and that they would be caught.

"The benefit fraud team is using increasingly sophisticated methods to detect fraud, if you are stealing tax payers’ money, we will catch up with you and there will be a knock at your door," he said.

Last year nearly 100 benefit claimants were formally dealt with for fraud, 21 were prosecuted, 48 were formally cautioned and 29 had an additional financial penalty added to their overpayment as punishment.

Reg Bascombe, Middlesbrough Council’s Head of Revenues and Benefits, said: "With such a large number of claimants not reporting their changes in circumstances, this not only places a huge financial burden on families when we catch up with them, but there is also a huge cost to the council tax payers of Middlesbrough in the steps we have to take to recover this money.

Councillor Nicky Walker, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive Member for Resources, added: "There are those who still believe that cheating the benefits system is a victimless crime and that they are just ‘playing the game’.

"Nothing could be further from the truth, every penny they claim fraudulently is being deprived from those in genuine need.

For queries about entitlement Middlesbrough residents can call the benefit section on 01642-726005.

Anyone with suspicions that benefit fraud is being committing can contact the Fraud Hotline on 01642-726355.