Public Sector

A new Black Country MP has asked her first question in the House of Commons.

Sonia Kumar, the new Labour MP for Dudley, asked what the new government would do to ensure money was not wasted when buying equipment for the NHS.

She told the house how her own experience as an NHS physiotherapist during the Covid-19 pandemic had led to her witnessing how 'crony contracts' resulted in resources being wasted.

In the last four years, over 200 potential fraud attempts totalling more than £2.1 million have been detected by Nottinghamshire County Council.

The figure has been published in the county council’s annual fraud report, which also describes how specialist council teams have worked to stop fraud attempts since 2020/21.

A Bristol builder who overstated the income from his construction companies to secure two Covid Bounce Back Loans totalling £100,000 has been handed a suspended jaul sentence.

James Leslie, 45, of Dundry, was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for 18 months, when he appeared at Bristol Crown Court this week.

An entrepreneur was convicted today (19 July 2024) of fraudulently obtaining a COVID-19 Bounce Bank Loans to a value of £50,000.

Gerald Smith, 69, was found guilty of one count related to fraud and will be sentenced on 20 September.

On one occasion, Smith submitted a fraudulent application for the loan. On one application, he claimed he needed the money to help his business and succeeded in obtaining a £50,000 loan. Once received, he used the funds for his personal use.

A woman accused of lying about her experience and qualifications to get a job as a senior nurse in a unit for sick and premature babies has been found guilty of fraud.

Tanya Nasir, 45, from Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, was accused of nine counts of fraud and false representation, which she denied.

In the last 12 months Sandwell Council and APCOA Parking Enforcement has undertaken 10 successful prosecutions, alongside issuing 18 warning letters and cancelling a suspected false application.

As a result of their efforts the organisations were named as the winners of the Local Authority Risk Managers’ award for Partnership Working, 'for effectively implementing a scheme to target and address blue badge misuse in Sandwell'.

A council has identified that it was owed tens of thousands of pounds through investigations into council tax fraud last year.

The findings came in a Cardiff Council report on the work of the internal audit team which was presented to the local authority’s governance and audit committee on Tuesday, July 9.

Data published by the Department for Work and Pensions has shown the proposals to snoop on bank accounts will cost £370m to set up. The system would then cost £30m a year to run once it's set up from 2032.

The DWP has confirmed that it will at first focus its attention on the top 15 banks in the UK, which included Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Santander, and TSB. These account for 97 per cent of the accounts used by people claiming benefits, reports Birmingham Live.

Fraudbusters saved more than half a million pounds in Brighton and Hove City Council’s housing department alone last year.

They recovered six properties and tackled tenancy fraud, according to counter fraud audit manager Simon White.

Mr White spoke about the results at the council’s Audit, Standards and General Purposes Committee meeting at Brighton Town Hall on Tuesday (25 June).

Aasim Johar colluded with a senior manager at Edinburgh University to perpetrate the crime against the institution over a decade.

A salesman was jailed for seven years after committing a £3.3 million fraud against a Scottish university.

https://news.stv.tv/east-central/salesman-jailed-for-3-3m-fraud-against-edinburgh-university-during-decade-long-scam