Fraudulent activity at city council being investigated

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

Fraudulent activity at Cardiff Council has been identified and is being investigated, according to a local authority official.

Cardiff Council director of economic development, Neil Hanratty, told members of the council’s governance and audit committee about the investigation at a meeting on Tuesday, September 10, where they were discussing a post trial review of another case of fraud that took place at the about eight years ago.

Mr Hanratty said the case being investigated was “minor” compared to the large scale incident of fraud discussed in the review which saw council staff jailed in November 2023 for taking large bribes from a skip firm boss.

The post trial review found that there has been a “significant improvement” in the management of waste services at Cardiff Council.

Mr Hanratty himself added that because of improved governance “we can have a good degree of confidence that the large scale fraud that we saw back in 2017 shouldn’t be repeated”.

Anomalies

However, he went on to say that the council has a recent example of how improved monitoring of data has identified anomalies that are in the process of being investigated.

Mr Hanratty added: “It is still fraudulent activity that we have identified and we are now progressing through investigation.

“That really has come about through good and consistent monitoring of, on this occasion, vehicle movements, where we are able to track activity and then ask questions and we have identified an issue that we are taking forward.”

Concerns were raised about fraudulent activity at Cardiff Council’s waste department in 2017.

Swansea Crown Court heard in November 2023 that council staff were handed cash bribes of about £1,700 a week for under weighing loads being delivered by skip firm boss, Warren Roberts, to Bessemer Close recycling centre.

Companies taking waste to recycling centres are charged in relation to the weight of the amount they bring on site.

The fraudulent waste disposal contracts resulted in losses of about £417,000 to Cardiff Council.

Bribe

The £1,700 bribe handed over each week was divided among the four council staff that Roberts had entered into a criminal arrangement with.

Council employees, Cesario Deabreu of Hill Rise, Llanedeyrn; and Joshua Hayman of Vale View, Tredegar, pleaded guilty to charges of bribery at an earlier hearing in May 2022 and they were sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment.

The other council employees involved in the fraud were Andrew Barnett of Hasting Close, Penarth; and Anthony Miles, Llwyn Passat, Penarth.

Barnett was found guilty of bribery offences at Cardiff Crown Court and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.

Miles pleaded guilty to charges of bribery at a hearing in June 2023 and was sentenced to 14 months suspended for 12 months.

Assistant director of street scene, Matthew Wakelam, said he welcomed the findings of the post trial review and feels the processes needed to prevent further fraudulent activity at the council’s waste management department are now in place.

He said: “The fraudulent activity [in 2017] had to be undertaken by a number of aligned officers for that activity to take place.

“What we have done… is we have strengthened the software systems to prevent any interaction to hide fraudulent activity within that area, but I think more importantly we have separated duties.

“The business support team now manage a lot of the processing and the financial management in the background, rather than the operational team managing that as part of their job.

“If there [are] any variances or any data changes, we are asking ourselves ‘why is that happening?’ and we are looking into those.”