DOZENS of fraudsters have been brought to justice by Wiltshire Council’s new corporate investigation team.

From April last year until March 2015 the team have been investigating fraud in a range of areas including housing benefit, blue badge and social care.

In the year it has been active the team has had four blue badges cancelled, 88 benefit claims cancelled, 21 discounts for council tax cancelled and five school places withdrawn after research showed parents were giving the incorrect address for their school preference.

The team also identified 330 people receiving single persons discount where a householder had failed to report they were no longer living alone.

As a result, more than £95,000 is now being recovered in overpaid benefit and discounts.

In 2014/15, there were 29 prosecutions, mostly for housing, council tax benefit and blue badge fraud.

There are an extra 40 cases being prosecuted at the moment and investigations have identified total savings or additional expected income of £241,000.

Dick Tonge, cabinet member for finance, said the new team had played a key role in bringing fraudsters to account and added that the council would be sympathetic where there was a genuine mistake.

He said: “Hard working people are tired of cheats playing the system and getting away with it and we are sending out a clear message that we are directing our resources to track these people down in our fight against fraud.

“By reducing fraud we can ensure council funds are properly directed to essential services.”

The council has bought high-tech software, using a £300k government grant to monitor housing stock, share information and identify potentially fraudulent tenancies. The housing providers will refer all high risk cases to the council to investigate.

People wishing to report fraud can do so via the Wiltshire Council website or the council’s fraud hotline on 01249 706256.