Councils join together to fight fraudsters

South Derbyshire District Council and Derby City Council have joined forces to help them stamp out fraud.

By working together, the partnership will benefit from sharing resources, intelligence and state-of-the art detection techniques to tackle a wide range of fraud, including:

• validating council house tenancies and making sure that properties are allocated to those that have a genuine need
• tackling illegal subletting to reduce unauthorised occupation and return properties back to the housing stock
• identifying false claims for Council Tax reduction
• making sure people pay their Council Tax on time
• stopping false Right to Buy requests supported by third parties and to help avoid/reduce the potential for money laundering.

Anyone found guilty of fraud will not only have to pay the money back, but may also be prosecuted or subject to additional financial penalties.

So the message from both South Derbyshire District Council and Derby City Council is clear – if you’re committing fraud, stop and if you’re thinking of doing so, think again.

Cllr Bob Wheeler, Leader of South Derbyshire District Council, said: “Our team works hard to prevent as many cases of fraudulent activity as possible, but with joint access to Derby City Council’s data and team intelligence even more cases will be cracked.

“The majority of people in South Derbyshire are hard-working taxpayers and fraud takes away money from where it should be spent – for the benefit of the district and its people”

Reporting fraud is quick, easy to do and confidential.

People wishing to contact South Derbyshire’s fraud investigation team can complete an online fraud referral form or tel: 01283 595827 or email: fraud@southderbyshire.gov.uk

Anyone wishing to contact Derby City Council can email: inspectionservice@derby.gov.uk or tel: 01332 640888.

2 March 2017