Stoke-on-Trent Council uncover £2.7million in fraud
There were 40 cases of residents fraudulently claiming the single person discount on their council tax
Council officers uncovered £2.7 million of fraud last year, a new report shows.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s corporate fraud team flagged a total of 108 cases in 2024/25, including housing tenancy, right to buy and council tax fraud.
The figures reported to the council’s audit committee were down on those from 2023/24, when there were 142 cases totalling £3.6 million.
Committee members were told that this was due to the team having fewer staff.
There were 40 cases of residents fraudulently claiming the single person discount on their council tax, making it the most common type of fraud.
The 18 housing tenancy fraud cases had an estimated combined value of £1.6 million, based on the cost of temporary accommodation for genuine applicants, legal costs to recover properties and re-let costs.
There were also 22 cases of Right to Buy fraud and six other cases relating to council tax.
"efficient going forward"
Head of audit and fraud Clare Potts told the committee that the team was looking to increase efficiency to uncover the same amount of fraud with fewer resources.
She said: “The value of the frauds identified over the course of the year was £2.7 million, which was a really positive result. It is slightly down on the previous year but we have got fewer staff in the team, which is the key reason we’ve been able to look at fewer cases.
“We’re looking at making sure we’re efficient going forward, so we’re focusing on areas of high risk and high value fraud, and where we do need to look at other areas of fraud we’re doing that as efficiently as we can – instead of a visit can we send a letter?”
Ms Potts highlighted the recent case of solicitor Alykhaan Nourani, from Manchester, who was prosecuted for fraudulently making pothole damage claims against the council.
Nourani, who was found guilty of four counts of fraud, received an eight-month suspended sentence and was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.
"we don’t tolerate fraud"
Ms Potts said: “We took this person to court and we were awarded damages. It sends out a really positive message that as an authority we don’t tolerate fraud and will use the full force of the law if you try to commit fraud against us.”
The committee heard that single person discount fraud could be identified either through tip-offs or by cross-checking council tax records with other data sets. Ms Potts explained that the council would then write to the individual, which in many cases would result in them admitting to the fraud.
Councillor Ross Irving suggested that the council should take more fraudsters to court. He said: “I wonder if we’re being a little too softly, softly on this. It is fraud at the end of the day, so shouldn’t we be taking more people to court? There’s a lot of this out there. There are times when we need to send a message that this is totally unacceptable.”
Monitoring officer James Doble told the committee that the council would take legal action if it was considered to be in the public interest, but in some cases the costs would outweigh any potential benefit.