Three Wakefield Council employees face second job allegations

The council's audit committee was told on Monday that whistleblowers had made claims against employees allegedly moonlighting, while they were supposedly on sick leave.

The council later confirmed it had received three such allegations since April, all of which are under investigation.

The local authority's counter-fraud unit said the "trend" of such claims had been mirrored across other councils.

Speaking at the meeting, corporate counter-fraud manager Rob Blair said: "We've done some analysis and in my opinion the pandemic has enabled this type of fraud, or potential for fraud, with staff working remotely and home-working and so on and so forth.

"We'll monitor the trends going forward and report back to this committee."

A report by The Guardian last month told how many white collar workers have taken advantage of remote working to take on second jobs without their employers' knowledge.

Many employees are contractually bound not to take on work for another organisation without permission.

Local Democracy Reporting Service