Probe into former city council officer accused of fraud

A FORMER Birmingham City Council officer has been under investigation by fraud detectives for nearly a year, it has emerged.

West Midlands Police confirmed they made an arrest in May last year.

The suspect, who has not been named, was released under investigation while the probe continues.

The case has come to light following the latest audit risk assessment for the authority by independent accountants Grant Thornton. The report said the alleged theft of money led to a major overhaul of the systems and processes within that service area.

Grant Thornton declared the council faced an ongoing threat of fraud around social housing and council tax applications, which were described as ‘high risk’.

Its report stated that between April 1, 2017 and January 11 this year 85 referrals of potential fraud and error had been made to the Internal Audit’s Corporate Fraud Team.

Additionally there were 1,641 cases raised in relation to ‘application fraud’ for social housing and council tax.

They resulted in 72 properties which were recovered for re-letting, 125 cancelled applications and one Right to Buy application which was stopped.

The council could not provide details of the nature of the current allegation against the former officer or state how much money was involved.

A spokesman said: “A full end to end review of procedures has been undertaken which considered payment methods, access controls, segregation of duties and the level of management oversight.

“New management controls have been introduced review to aid the detection of fraud.”

The council confirmed that the implementation of the new management arrangements had not incurred any additional costs.

The matter was reported to Action Fraud and West Midlands Police’s Economic Crime Unit on April 25 last year which led to the arrest of the suspect within four weeks. following prevention this and