Fighting fraud and corruption

This page explains fraud and corruption and what we do to protect ourselves, our employees, partners and the public from it.

Report suspected fraud

What is Fraud

The Fraud Act 2006 describes fraud as the intention to make gain or cause loss under three main headings:

fraud by false representation
fraud by failing to disclose information
fraud by abuse of position

There are further subheadings of fraud described including possession of articles for use in fraud, making or supplying articles for use in frauds, participating in fraudulent business and or obtaining services dishonestly.

What is corruption & bribery

Corruption is defined as the offering, giving, soliciting or acceptance of an inducement or reward, or showing any favour or disfavour which may influence any person to act improperly.

Bribery is defined in the Bribery Act 2010 "as giving someone a financial or other advantage to encourage that person to perform their functions or activities improperly or to reward a person for having already done so, in order to gain personal, commercial, regulatory or contractual advantage". It is the most common form of corruption.

Fraud and corruption drain our time and money from those who really need our support.

Protecting against fraud

We take fraud and corruption very seriously and are committed to preventing and detecting fraud and corruption. We aim to develop a culture of zero tolerance against fraud and corruption.

We have a Corporate Fraud Team and all instances of potential fraud or corruption that are reported to us will be investigated rigorously and promptly, and appropriate action will be taken. We encourage anyone concerned about fraud or corruption concerning the council, its partners or wholly-owned companies, to report it using the contact usdetails.

For details of our approach, download the following documents:

You can find further details about benefit fraud and how to report it by looking at our Report Housing Benefit fraud page.

Durham County Council Counter Fraud Data 2020/21

Title	Data
Number of occasions we used powers under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud (Power to Require Information) (England) Regulations 2014 or similar powers	31
Total number of employees undertaking investigations and prosecutions of fraud	8
Total number of full time equivalent employees undertaking investigations and prosecutions of fraud	8
Total number of professionally accredited counter fraud specialists	5
Total number of full time equivalent professionally accredited counter fraud specialists	5
Total amount spent on the investigation and prosecution of fraud	£277,848
Total number of fraud cases investigated	691
Total number of occasions on which fraud was identified	337
Total monetary value of the fraud that was detected	£3,372,722
Total monetary value of the fraud that was recovered	Not recorded

Related guidance

You may be interested in watching the YouTube videos, produced by Action Fraud, that highlight some of the methods used by fraudsters to obtain personal details of unsuspecting individuals for fraudulent purposes.

Be on your guard. As the old saying goes: 'If it is too good to be true, it probably is!'

Contact Corporate Fraud

Email corporatefraudteam@durham.gov.uk
Telephone 03000 266 745

Contact Internal Audit

Email Internal.Audit@durham.gov.uk
Telephone 03000 269 645

Document downloads

Related information

Offsite links