The PSNI is to be contacted over the fate of the fraudster who stole £100,000 from the old Derry City Council after concerns were raised about the lack of information available on the crime.
The attempted theft happened in February 2015, when a payment of £99,426 was lodged into the wrong bank account by the old Derry City Council after a fake letter was received requesting that a contractor’s bank details be changed.
The scam was only uncovered a week after the payment was made when the genuine contractor contacted council asking why he had not yet received the money.
The bank and PSNI were immediately contacted and the account frozen, with the money then recovered by council.
It emerged last month that Derry City and Strabane District Council launched a formal disciplinary investigation into whether or not any of the council staff involved had been guilty of gross negligence.
However, the probe found that while there had been ‘a serious breach of financial procedures’, none of the staff had been grossly negligent in relation to the theft, therefore no disciplinary action was taken.
A further report on the matter was brought before a meeting of council’s Assurance, Audit and Risk Committee, at which elected members were told the council was ‘confident that there was no criminal element internally which needed to be dealt with by the PSNI’.
Denise McDonnell, Head of Internal Audit and Risk Services with council, added that ‘due to the fact that fraudsters were becoming more sophisticated and operating as professionals, management would continue to review the controls in place in this area to ensure that the risk of fraud is mitigated’.
She added a programme of fraud awareness training was to be delivered to council staff over the coming year.
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