Police investigating alleged fraud at school

Nicholas Thomas Local Democracy Reporter

An alleged fraud at a school is being investigated by police, although council bosses have refused to disclose any further details.

Caerphilly County Borough Council has declined to name the school or share any more information on the matter, but a senior officer has described the alleged incident as involving “thousands” of pounds.

“Ongoing investigation”

At a recent council meeting, Plaid Cymru councillor Lindsay Whittle noted a report to Audit Wales which stated there was “one ongoing police investigation relating to potential fraud in a previous reporting period”.

Dave Street, the deputy chief executive of Caerphilly Council, said the matter was “an ongoing investigation into actions at a particular school”.

He added: “I can’t say any more than that, given that obviously it is a live police investigation.”

Cllr Whittle asked about the “magnitude” of the alleged incident and whether it was “something that might run into a very expensive issue”.

Steve Harris, the council’s head of financial services, told the meeting the alleged incident involved “not a significant sum of money”.

“We’re talking thousands, not hundreds of thousands,” he said.

Mr Harris added that if the matter under investigation “does result in a successful prosecution, we will publicise that fact, because obviously we would see that as a deterrent to any other attempts of fraud in the council moving forward”.

Following the meeting, a Caerphilly Council spokesperson declined to name the school involved in the investigation, nor the date of the alleged incident.

They added: “Due to the ongoing police investigation, we are unable to provide any further information than that given at the meeting of the council.”