Adult social care was the biggest cause of potential fraud investigated at Redcar and Cleveland Council in the last 12 months, a report has revealed.

The organisation Veritau, which delivers a counter-fraud service on behalf of the local authority, said 54 potential reports of fraud were referred to it in the 2023/24 financial year.

As a result, its team completed 16 investigations into alleged frauds with adult social care representing almost 39% of all cases, the majority.

Other areas investigated included council tax and business rates avoidance and the misuse of parking schemes.

Veritau said 38% of investigated cases resulted in successful outcomes, while in one example given £19,100 was identified for recovery by the council.

A warning was also issued to a business owner who incorrectly obtained a reduction on liability for non-domestic rates, who eventually paid the £4,500 shortfall involved as a result.

One fraud case was subsequently reported to the police, although no further details were given.

A ‘whistleblowing’ allegation was also received during the period relating to misuse of council resources, which was still under investigation.

A report for governance committee members introducing the Veritau findings said: “Raising awareness with officers and the public is a key activity in helping the council prevent and detect fraud.  “Targeted training with staff engaged in procurement and working for the council’s external revenues and benefits provider [have taken] place.  “Further campaigns focused on cyber-enabled crime, whistleblowing arrangements, and anti-corruption policies.”

An updated counter-fraud strategy was approved by the council’s governance committee last September.

It agreed several actions to be undertaken, including the completion of a “local data matching exercise” of council tax and parking records in a bid to detect fraud and error, and a review of anti-fraud measures aimed at creating protection from false compensation claims.

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Fraud is a significant risk to the public sector, damaging the ability to support services.

The Government has estimated that between £33.2 and £58.8billion of public spending was lost to fraud in 2020/2021.

During this period subsidy schemes intended to help individuals and businesses with grants during the covid-19 pandemic were particularly targeted by organised criminals.