The number of whistleblowing cases doubled
Bristol City Hall(Image: Bristol Live)
Bristol City Council’s scam-busters stopped £4million of corruption last year.
The counter-fraud and investigations team unearthed a wide range of attempted cons by a variety of people, including staff, tenants, parents and suppliers, the authority’s audit committee was told.
Tenancy fraud work resulted in 30 ‘positive outcomes’, such as a property recovered or a false application for a tenancy cancelled, between April 1, 2024, to March 31 this year.
A total of £164,000 was recovered in unpaid council tax relating to properties that had been considered empty for more than six months but were in fact occupied.
Weekly payments totalling £3,844 were prevented from being lost to fraudsters, a report to the committee said.
A Bristol City Council employee in the finance team who had an undeclared second job was dismissed and had part of their salary paid back to the authority, while a member of staff in adult social care accused of having two full-time jobs simultaneously resigned, although there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal offence.
The report said: “Work was undertaken on school admissions at the end of 2024 to ensure that applicants were not falsifying their address to gain access to oversubscribed schools.
“This resulted in cancellation of one secondary school application, with a further one currently under investigation.
“Our fraud hub allows us to match our data to national datasets to enable early cancellation of services due to the death of users or a change in circumstances.
“The hub has been particularly beneficial in ensuring early cancellation of blue badges and travel passes and so avoiding their possible misuse.
“Action can also be taken quickly to recover council properties or determine whether a succession is appropriate.”
It said the team cancelled 243 blue badges and 1,514 concessionary travel passes over the year.
The report to the committee on Thursday, May 29, said: “There have been twice the number of whistleblowing cases this year in comparison with last year.
“It is not known whether this is due to an increase in awareness and confidence in the process or an indicator of increasing challenges within the organisation.
“We will continue to monitor the position.”
Try BristolLive Premium for FREE without intrusive ads and brilliant new features
No intrusive adverts, pop-ups or distractions! Just our brilliant content presented in the best way possible.
Get your free one-month trial by visiting the ‘Premium’ tab on the BristolLive app now (auto renews annually at £19.99).
If you haven’t got it already, get started by downloading our app here on iPhone or here on Android. If you already have the app but can’t see the ‘Premium’ section, you’ll need to check for the latest update. More info here.