COUNCIL tax dodgers in the North-East and North Yorkshire have cheated the region's authorities out of tens of millions, a union has claimed.

Public services union GMB has blamed the region's councils for failing to collect the money and says new laws should be introduced to give landlords power to ensure their tenants pay.

The councils, however, have fought back to reassure tax payers by saying the figures are misleading and measures are in place to clamp down on those cheating the system.

Out of all the authorities in the North-East, Gateshead was shown to have the largest amount in uncollected tax money, at £4m - a rise from £2.7m last year.

Newcastle City Council had the second highest total, with £3.7m in uncollected taxes from 2004/2005, compared to £3.1m the previous year.

Middlesbrough came third with £2.7m, up from £1.6m, and Sunderland followed with £2.2m in uncollected tax.

Councils across Yorkshire are not performing any better according to GMB, with an overall amount of £53m missing in tax. York has £3m uncollected tax and Scarborough's figure has risen from £1m to £1.2m.

Tom Brennan, GMB regional secretary, said: "GMB wants to see changes in the law and in the Inland Revenue rules to give councils powers to enable landlords to ensure their tenants pay their council tax.

"GMB is not prepared to see people cheating the system to the detriment of our members and at the expense of the local tax payer."

Newcastle council leader Councillor Peter Arnold admitted the figures looked negative on the surface, but said that in reality they were misleading.

He said: "What the figures don't show is the percentage of tax we are collecting. At present, we collect 95 per cent of all council tax and, by the next financial year, we expect this to rise to 98 per cent.

"No council collects 100 per cent. People die, and you can't collect money from dead people, and others move away and we don't have the facilities to chase everyone who leaves the region, or indeed the country."

Derek Coates, strategic director of finance for Gateshead Council, said: "The figures quoted represent a snapshot of the situation and do not reflect the actual collection that the council has achieved.

"Since April, the council has recovered £2.4m of 'uncollected' council tax, brought forward from 2004/5 and will continue to collect the remaining amount on an ongoing basis. Since the council tax was introduced in 1993, more than 99 per cent due for each year has been collected."

The GMB figures showed the amount of tax uncollected by all 351 English councils added up to £589m. London topped the table with £151m.