Police called in over East Northants Council fraud

Police officers are to be called in to probe the potential theft of £13,000 from the former East Northants Council.

Councillors were told on Monday that someone had set up a direct debit of £100 per week for 130 weeks that had gone undetected because no reconciliaton of the accounts had been carried out during the 2019/20 financial year.

Members were told that it wasn't worth investigating such a 'low level' of fraud and that the police would not be called in.

But now the leader of the council set up in place of the East Northants authority has confirmed he'll be asking police to investigate the potential criminal activity.

The issue was first uncovered by auditors Ernst & Young who were looking at the now defunct council's 2019/20 accounts after a significant delay. They discovered what they described as 'fraudulent payments' in the balance sheet.

North Northants Council was set up in April last year to replace district and county councils which were scrapped because of financial failings at Northamptonshire County Council.

Members of NNC's audit and governance had the chance to ask questions about the issue at their meeting on Monday (January 31).

Claire Edwards, assistant director of finance accountancy for NNC, told the committee: "We are still investigating if they are fraudulent. It was a direct debit set up - £13,118 was paid out. It was cancelled in July 2021."

The council had been paying £100 a week via an intermediate third party, for two-and-a-half years. Ms Edwards compared the payments as like those for a service provider, using as an example Sky TV. The direct debit had been set up using the bank details of an ENC bank account to make the regular payments.

She said that there was 'very little' the authority could do to recoup the money.

There were also worries raised that the situation could reoccur.

But after the matter was publicised by this newspaper, Cllr Jason Smithers last night (Wednesday, February 2) told our reporters on social media: "I can confirm that I have asked for this matter to be fully investigated and for it to be reported to the police.

"I'm satisfied that the new authority @NNorthantsC has in place robust checks and balances to ensure that the public purse is protected to the very highest level."