What is public sector fraud?
Public sector fraud is where criminals seek to exploit government grant and compensation schemes for their personal gain.
Because this type of fraud involves stealing public money, it affects all taxpayers. The criminals produce fake documents and applications to deliberately deceive and exploit certain schemes which are there to help genuine applicants.
Examples of public sector fraud are:
- abuse of the right-to-buy system for former council homes
- Legal Aid fraud
- Grant for Business Investment (GBI) fraud
Case examples
Three training company directors were given prison sentences at Manchester Crown Court for rigging trainee course attendance numbers to gain Learning Skills Council funds.
Two people, operating a training consultancy as shadow directors, admitted a conspiracy to defraud another organisation which made funds available to firms in the region on behalf of the Learning Skills Council.
Another registered director admitted to failing to keep accurate accounting records and so was in breach of s.221 of the Companies Act 1985.
