Council staff detected almost £1.4 million worth of fraud in the past year – including from council rates evasion and misuse of blue badge placards.

A report at the council’s finance committee on Tuesday said £978,659 of the total was from cases where people wrongfully applied for or held a single occupancy council tax discount.

It detailed that council officers found the unpaid rates through a combination of data held by the council and third party sources, as well as ‘specialist validation services’.

The report also says efforts to recover the fraud detailed in the report was underway.

Some £106,026 came from other council tax exemptions and discounts that were wrongfully claimed or held, including student discounts, while £57,438 came from undue tax reductions.

And £144,000 wort

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