A REPORT has found that Cotswold District Council (CDC) could not have been aware of the extent and exact nature of the fraud by former Cotswold Water Park Society (CWPS) chief Dennis Grant.

The report into a catalogue of failings at the Cotswold Water Park by audit officer Robert Milford was presented to a special meeting of CDC’s audit committee on November 1.

Mr Milford said that, due to procedures put in place by the CWPS, councillors and officers were not fully aware of the financial situation of the society.

“The practice at the time when Dennis Grant was Chief Executive Officer was to ask all council members to leave when the CWPS board discussed financial matters,” said Mr Milford in the report.

“Furthermore, any financial information provided to the Cotswold Water Park Joint Committee at this time was identified as unlikely to be a true or fair representation of the CWPS financial standing.”

Cllr Lee Searles said he was concerned that questions had been raised to CDC about the financial activities of the society, but nothing was done until the full extent of the fraud was uncovered.

“It seems that whenever people take issues like this to the council they get fobbed off and then we don’t understand why these things happen,” he said.

“If we’d kept on that track we might still be giving Dennis Grant money today.”

Cllr Sir Edward Horsefall, chairing the meeting, said it was important that CDC put measures in place to ensure a repeat of the Water Park fraud.

“In hindsight there’s got to be better controls here,” he said.

“We were all taken in unfortunately.”

Though the report found that grants given to the CWPS by CDC had not been included in the stolen funds, the committee approved the recommendation that measures are put in place to ensure such grants are used appropriately.

“We have an obligation more than ever before to make sure that any grants we give are appropriately utilised,” said Cllr Horsefall.

It was also agreed to ensure the running of the Water Park Trust is closely monitored and that CDC would take action to recover tax lost to the fraud.