24 families caught in Edinburgh school catchment fraud probe
They were caught giving false statements to try get places in the capital's most popular schools
Twenty-four families have lost their places for the next school session after being caught giving false statements to get their kids into popular Edinburgh Schools.
There were 13 catchment frauds at high schools and 11 at primaries in the city as the City of Edinburgh Council stepped up its campaign to target catchment fraud.
This reflected an increase of six families being caught last year.
James Gillespie’s High School was top of the list with seven places being refused.
In total the Council’s Fraud Team carried out 1,500 checks which included all potential S1 places at three of the city’s most popular high schools.
This resulted in the offer of places being withdrawn with other families dropping their requests once they discovered they were being investigated.
In several cases families were also found to be fraudulently claiming council tax benefits and were forced to repay money.
Fraudulent examples included a family living in a neighbouring authority trying to get their child into a city primary, another claiming they lived at an address four miles from their targeted primary school, parents making up false leases and others claiming to live at properties being rented to students.
Councillor Paul Godzik, Convener of Education, Children and Families for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “We know this is an issue that concerns many parents and we take it very seriously.
"We warn parents every year that we are actively looking into catchment fraud and if we believe there is a possibility that fraud is being committed we will investigate. If we discover this to be the case we will withdraw the school place.
“By working with the Council’s Fraud Team we are able to access a greater range of information, including all credit checks and this has allowed us to identify instances of fraud.
“All our schools provide a great education and I would urge parents to visit their local schools to see for themselves the fantastic learning environments rather than committing fraud.”