Council wins grant to tackle fraud

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WARRINGTON Borough Council and its partners have successfully bid for a total of £140,000 to help in the fight against fraud.
The funding comes from the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Counter Fraud Fund and the money has been awarded to two initiatives – Fighting Fraud in Cheshire and Who’s Home in Warrington?
Fighting Fraud in Cheshire is a joint project with three other councils – Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East and Halton Borough.
The bid was for £68,000 and by working in partnership the four councils will develop resources to raise awareness about fraud, carry out proactive forensic analysis and investigation in areas identified with a high risk of fraud.
Initial areas for review will include procurement and contracting and insurance. As well as identifying and investigating potential frauds, the project will look to design out fraud risks in systems and provide training and information-sharing.
Who’s home in Warrington was a joint bid from the council, Golden Gates Housing Trust and Housing Partners. The project was given £72,000 and will fund a multi-agency approach to tackling two areas of potential fraud in Warrington around tenancy and council tax discount fraud.
Cllr Russ Bowden (pictured), Warrington’s lead member for corporate resources and assignment, said: “This is fantastic news and it means that we can now start working on innovative plans and ways of working to combat fraud in a number of areas.
“The fight against fraud can be complex and it is important that we develop the right tools to be able to do the job. It is in everybody’s interests that we do so – we need to be able to help protect residents from falling victim to fraud and fraud can cost organisations a lot of money.
“By working in partnership with neighbouring councils and our partners we can continue this fight and reduce fraud across all our communities.”


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Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.

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