Fraud and errors totalling £175,000 were found by council investigators in the past year.
The North Ayrshire Council corporate fraud team gained the money from a wide range of sources in 2021/22 – the biggest coming from council tax in which 59 cases saw the recovery of money.
There were also 28 cases in housing where cash was gleaned.
And some 32 tenancies were recovered by the housing department, with assistance from corporate fraud officers.
Two blue badges, which were being illegitimately used, were also recovered by the fraud team.
However, there were 284 cases closed during the same period.
The corporate fraud team worked in many different ways owing to Covid restrictions in 2021/22.
Property visits were suspended for the full year and face-to-face interviews were only carried out in the most exceptional cases.
Asked by Kilwinning councillor Donald Reid about a spate of recent cases of abuse of the blue badge for people with disabilities, Laura Miller, senior manager (audit, fraud, safety and insurance) told a meeting of the audit and scrutiny committee: “The numbers of warning letters are possibly slightly lower than we have seen in the past.
“But the corporate fraud team have an approach of investigating 100 per cent of referrals made to the team. Although six warring letters were sent out, 28 referrals were made.”
Referrals for investigation to corporate fraud were made from a number of different sources, including revenues and benefits, and housing, members of the public and other agencies and local authorities.
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