Fraud, theft... and £6m down the drain

SCOTLAND’S public bodies lost more than £6million in only 12 months.

The scale of ‘wasted’ cash includes £3.4million in ‘losses’ posted by the NHS through theft, embezzlement and fruitless payments.

The Scottish Government lost £219,361 to nursing bursaries that were ‘written off or cancelled’.

The Scottish Prison Service reported losses of £132,000, including £2,000 of ‘missing cash’ and damage. Social Security Scotland reported that it had lost £4,000 due to the overpayment of benefits.

A spokesman said: ‘Overall the number of errors in relation to the payments is exceptionally low – it accounts for a hundredth of a per cent of the money we paid out in the last financial year.’

Transport Scotland paid £333,420 over damage claims. These were written off due to being ‘unable to identify the culprit or no chance of recovering costs’.