Fraudster tricked North East Lincolnshire council out of £22k
It's the only time in the last 3 years this kind of activity has occurred
A fraudster has managed to trick North East Lincolnshire council out of 22 thousand pounds.
A fraudster managed to trick council staff into paying the cash into a different bank account than the one it was intended for.
The incident took place back in August and the council reported Action Fraud.
Its finance help-desk team successfully stopped another attempt which would have seen £32,000 paid out to a fraudster in the same month.
The loss was 'highly regrettable'
Councillor Stan Shreeve, North East Lincolnshire Council cabinet member for finance, described the theft of taxpayer money as 'despicable'.
He said:
“Any successful fraud attempt is highly regrettable, particularly when the council is facing financial challenges.
“The council deals with around 100,000 financial transactions each year, worth more than £200million, and attempts at fraud are commonplace for many large organisations.
“Fraud is despicable, and quite frankly, a crime, which in this case was reported to Action Fraud. Anyone aware of fraud should do the same.”