Fraud against councils across south Essex is putting millions of taxpayers’ money at risk each year, a new report has revealed.

The Counter Fraud and Investigation Service, which is funded by councils across the region, has outlined in an annual report that £5.3million of fraudulent activity was detected across Southend and Thurrock Councils in the past 12 months.

The hardest hit was Thurrock where £3.4million was detected but just £941,155 was recovered.

In Southend, £1.9million was lost with £354,300 recouped.

Council fraud can range from social housing fraud – where tenants attempt to sub-let council properties for profit – to employees manipulating systems from the inside.

In the five years the counter fraud team has been operating it has detected fraud worth £11.5million in Thurrock and £5.4million in Southend.

Of the combined £17million, just £6.7million has been recovered.

Councillor Shane Hebb, deputy leader of Thurrock Council and cabinet member for Finance and Transformation, said: “We have made it very clear that we will not tolerate those who defraud the taxpayer and will continue to take tough action to protect the public purse.

“We have invested in our Counter Fraud team to make sure the public funds that the council administers are protected from fraud and economic crime, and last year successfully detected £3.4million of fraud, recovering £941,155 and preventing further ongoing fraudulent loss continuing.

“We have also been sponsored by the Government to support other local authorities suffering from serious and complex frauds.

“Despite working tirelessly to trace potential criminal proceeds early on in investigations and present cases for confiscation by the courts, unfortunately some offenders have no assets to confiscate.”