ORGANISED criminals running a national scam targeted Redcar and Cleveland Council in a bid to fraudulently gain access to Government funded covid-19 support grants.
Local authorities have been tasked with issuing hundreds of thousands of pounds in grants to a variety of firms affected by the pandemic, including small businesses and those operating in the leisure, hotel and retail sectors as part of several schemes introduced last year.
The Government also provided ‘bounce back’ loans to struggling businesses with spending watchdog the National Audit Office last year warning the speed the scheme was rolled out led to a heightened risk of fraud.
A counter fraud progress report presented to members of the council’s governance committee said intelligence provided by the authority’s counter fraud team had prevented a payment of £10,000 to organised criminals.
It was said to be part of a national attempt “targeting lots of councils across the country” and an investigation was ongoing.
A £10,000 payment was also blocked in another instance because of an “invalid application” for funding.
Max Thomas, head of internal audit at Veritau, which provides assurance services to Redcar and Cleveland, Middlesbrough and North Yorkshire County Council and undertakes fraud prevention work, said: “We recommend cases for prosecution where we think the evidence is sufficient to secure a conviction.”
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