COUNCIL DETERMINED TO SHUT OUT 'PANDEMIC PIRATES' TARGETING COVID CASH HAND-OUTS

A PLEDGE to crack down on fraud and corruption has been sounded by North East Lincolnshire Council which insists  it will "follow up allegations brought to its attention".

A document seen by the Grimsby News states: "The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly increased the risk of fraud to individuals, businesses and both central and local government. 

"Fraudsters have targeted the public, praying on their anxieties and concerns by offering  goods such as fake masks, hand sanitisers and  test kits. 

"Some have offered fake income tax or council tax refunds and other bogus incentives. 

"These frauds commonly use phishing e-mails or texts (mishing) to lead individuals to a fake website where they steal personal information."

Along with other authorities, NELC has been  particularly vulnerable to unscrupulous applications for grants via the Government's Small Business Support Grant Scheme.

Here, the authority says it has developed a process to enable payments to be made quickly whilst protecting against fraud. 

Businesses have been required to provide evidence to support their applications and checks were made against the business rates data held. and anomalies were identified. 

The council is confident that, locally, the scheme has not been defrauded by any of the  scams that have been prevalent.

Below is a breakdown both of payments made and of those rejected - for instance, if the businesses were non-existent or if more than one application was made by the same business.

* Total applications for business support grants: 3,174

* Number of individual businesses supported: 2,701

* Total paid out to local businesses: £31.37-million

* Applications rejected: 473

In one case, NELC  ordered the return of a £10,000 grant when foul play was detected after the monies had been awarded.

So far so good, but, on the downside, the  pandemic has limited the authority's capacity to conduct day-to-day investigations. 

Since March, its officers have been unable to conduct face-to-face interviews either formally or informally or to visit people’s homes or other premises.

NELC has therefore developed a method of 'informal' telephone interviewing, enabling investigations to be conducted in a safe manner until such time that interviews under caution can be carried out in an office.

It is understood the council is currently also casting an eagle-eye on potential abuses in adult social care payments and other areas such as "agency workers, credit card transactions and income management processes". grant monies

However, the authority acknowledges that its systems are not foolproof.

The report concludes: "There is an underlying risk that some instances of potential fraud, corruption and misconduct may not have been identified."

The Grimsby News says: It is shameful that some individuals are willing to exploit the pandemic - and the public purse - for their own personal profit. It is, therefore, commendable that NELC seems to have adopted a policy of rigorous scrutiny before awarding grants. Even so, the authority  is aware that not all unscrupulous claims will necessarily have been detected. What it should now do, in the interests of transparency, is to publish the full register of both those  businesses whose applications have been successful and those which have not. What is more, where it believes that have been cases of fraud or attempted fraud, it should either prosecute through the courts or, at the very least, it should name and shame.