Doncaster Council employee sacked for sending over £1,000 to family members in fraudulent refunds
The council says it was an 'isolated incident'
A member of staff at the City of Doncaster Council has been sacked after reportedly paying themselves and their family members over £1,000 by “initiating refunds for services that were never commissioned”.
The annual report of the head of internal audit, presented to the Council’s audit committee last week, said £1,033 worth of payments were “fraudulently submitted by the employee”.
Debbie Hogg, executive director of corporate resources, said: “Although we don’t go into details of individual cases, we are keen to stress that incidences such as these are very rare as a result of the robust arrangements we have in place for preventing and detecting fraud.
“The member of staff in question is no longer an employee of City of Doncaster Council.”
The City of Doncaster Council would not provide any further details about the incident when approached by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
According to the head of internal audit Peter Jackson’s report, his team investigated the incident in June/July 2024 after the employee’s fraud was uncovered by their service manager.
The report said: “Internal investigatory processes were followed, and recovery of these monies is underway.”
During the meeting of the audit committee on April 24, 2025, Councillor Iris Beech asked council officers what, if anything, could be done differently to prevent this happening again in the future.
Ms Hogg told her: “It’s going to be inevitable that if somebody is minded to commit fraud, they will find a way.
“It is subsequently picked up and worked through… We’re never going to eradicate everything. It’s just impossible.”
Mr Jackson said by discovering the fraud and reporting it, the management processes “worked in that sense”.
He added: “The audit team did a very comprehensive bit of work. This was a very isolated incident.”