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The investigations have also seen notional savings of approximately £1,536,888.

These are the estimated future savings to the public purse due to the intervention and successful fraud investigation.

For example, it is assumed that had it not been for the investigation, a housing benefit claim would have continued to be paid at the higher rate for at least 21 weeks.

The Counter Fraud Officer has been employed by the Council since June 2018, this is a shared role with North Warwickshire Borough Council, (NWBC) and the Officer spends 60 per cent of his time investigating fraud allegations at NBBC and 40 per cent at NWBC.

The notional saving calculations are in line with those used by the Cabinet Office for their data matching exercise, the National Fraud Initiative.

This is conducted to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud with data being provided by some 1,200 organisations from both the public and private sectors - NBBC being one of them

Cllr Sam Croft, Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Affairs at Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, said:

“I'm delighted that the counter fraud officers have been so successful this year, I'd like to thank them for their exceptional efforts increasing savings for the taxpayer by £336,938.

“As an administration we are acutely aware that there is no such thing as government money, only money provided by the taxpayer.

“Fraud against the council means that the citizen then has to pay more, so we are determined to stamp out any criminality or activity that defrauds the taxpayer in such tough economic times.’’