Close to 200 frauds discovered in York since April

Cracking down on fraud is high on the agenda for many councils and boroughs, yet the City of York Council made itself a challenging target - to save £200,000 by the end of the financial year in April 2027.

This was an impressive figure and somewhat based on the savings the previous financial year.

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According to a report by the BBC 73 investigations into fraud had been completed by September 30^th and another 73 still open which included 20 over council tax fraud, 19 to household levy support, 10 regarding parking, nine housing and five detailed suspected internal fraud.

Veritau - the body responsible for investigating fraud on behalf of councils - compiled a report to indicate where short falls are happening.

According to the body, 192 fraud referrals were made between April and September, saving £157,000:

• Council tax and business rate fraud resulted in fines, official warnings and referrals to the local police force.

  
  

• Parking permits and blue badges have been targeted for improper use resulting in 22 investigations.

  
  

• Eight applications for emergency financial assistance have been investigated with 3 fraudulent applications ceased immediately and one resulting in a referral to the police.

  
  

• A single right to buy application was blocked while two houses were recovered and allocated to families on the council's waiting list.

  
  

• One person’s house banding was downgraded as they were over egging the pudding on their needs.

The city of York is well on target to eclipse their figure from the last financial year which indicated 301 referrals made which saved the borough £219,512.

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