Newcastle City Council refers fraud investigation to police
An investigation into potential fraud at a council has been referred to the police.In April, Newcastle City Council began investigating possible fraudulent activity within the council's transport department.The local authority confirmed on Tuesday that the "financial irregularities", understood to relate to potential overclaiming involving an unconfirmed number of employees, had been passed onto Northumbria Police to look into further.The force said it was currently reviewing the material.
The council said the council's internal investigation into the allegations related to a section of the transport department, rather than any individuals in its corporate leadership team, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Responsibility for transport issues will now sit with Christine Herriot, the Labour-run council's director of city operations, neighbourhoods and regulatory services, for the time being.Civic centre officials also confirmed that, following the launch of the investigation earlier this year, it has had to pay to bring in external staff to assist with the running of a section of its transport department. It described this as "standard practice in instances where additional capacity is needed".Colin Ferguson, leader of the council's Liberal Democrat opposition, said that it was "absolutely right" that the concerns over financial irregularities had been referred to the police."The public deserves clarity on who knew what and when, and for how long this has been going on," he said."They have a right to know whether this could and should have been dealt with a long time ago."
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