Thousand ‘fraud’ cases wrongly recorded

Errors include the high profile case of the Kings Science Academy free school in Bradford which was not subject to a criminal inquiry until it was leaked to the public. The school is alleged to have submitted fabricated invoices to claim just over £10,000 of public money from the Department of Education (DfE).

The new figures of misreported cases are contained in a letter which Home Office Minister Karen Bradley sent to Yorkshire MP David Ward.

The Liberal Democrat wrote to the Home Office after The Yorkshire Post revealed the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) had realised the allegations against the free school had been wrongly recorded as “for information only” but then did not ensure the matter was looked at for criminal investigation.

Suspected fraud is now reported through a national centre called Action Fraud. This then passes cases on to the NFIB, run by City of London Police, as either crime or information reports.

In the Kings case, the DfE reported the matter in April 2013 but it was wrongly recorded as being for information by Action Fraud. This only came to light after the allegations against the school were leaked to the media in October.

It is now being investigated by West Yorkshire Police, but Mr Ward has questioned if this would have happened had the details not been leaked.