MORE than £50,000 in fraudulent Covid business support grants has been paid out by North Ayrshire Council (NAC), the local authority’s leader has revealed.
Responding to a question from Kilbirnie and Beith Independent Councillor Donald L Reid during a virtual meeting last week, Councillor Joe Cullinane said NAC’s finance team was working to recoup the cash.
He said they had delivered £53.5 million of financial support to businesses over the last 18 months through almost 11,000 grant payments.
Cllr Cullinane said: “Significant fraud prevention controls were put in place, and the current number of fraudulent grant payments made via North Ayrshire Council is nine, representing less than 0.1 per cent of all grants processed, from four individuals/businesses.
“These four individuals/businesses made multiple fraudulent claims across a number of local authority areas, and the finance team are pursuing the individuals/businesses for repayment of these funds.”
The council leader added: “The sum of these fraudulent claims is £51,000, representing approximately 0.09 per cent of all such funds administered by North Ayrshire Council.”
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