Blue badge misuse remains at the top of Hertfordshire County Council's fraud register, with 189 allegations reported between April and December last year.

Elsewhere, 53 claims of fraud were made regarding schools, often involving phishing emails sent to schools from outside the UK. In addition, 30 fraud investigations stem from care services – which typically involves care plans and financial assessments.

The figures were unveiled in Hertfordshire County Council's Anti-Fraud Progress Report for 2025/26, overseen by the audit committee.

The report stated that at the time of writing, Hertfordshire's Shared Anti-Fraud Service had 38 cases under investigation or at the referral stage, with estimated losses of £1.3 million recorded in this caseload.

Out of these 38 investigations, 33 cases identified a total of £196,000 in fraud loss to be recovered, and a further £67,000 loss was prevented. Several cases are under investigation from previous years, and these have reported fraud loss/savings combined of £1.2 million.

Three cases have been referred to the council's legal team to consider prosecution. These involve matters with significant losses that can take a long time to resolve through the court process.

Nick Jennings, head of the shared anti-fraud service, told councillors: "We have completed a piece of work with the education and department school teams to look at the policies used by schools across the county as well.

"One of the key areas of work for us is around awareness. We raise awareness in a number of ways, and one is through informing staff of fraud risks as we see them. So, we issue a number of fraud alerts – two monthly papers we share across the authority and other partners – where we look at themes.

advertisement

"So far this year, we've covered fake documents, email spoofing, false IDs and guidance on failure to prevent fraud offences."

The report stated 3,107 potential frauds were identified through the Cabinet Office's National Fraud Initiative (NFI) of 2024, with an estimated £605,000 saved through prevention.

Elsewhere, Hertfordshire councils could benefit from £4.9 million in savings over 2025/26, following SAFS's Council Tax Review, which aims to root out fraudulent applications for council tax discounts.

SAFS has also been briefing officers and creating action plans following the introduction of the 'Failing to Prevent Fraud' offence, introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, which took effect from September 2025. SAFS published a briefing paper for senior leadership teams across all SAFS Partners to advise on the impact of this legislation and ensure appropriate action plans are in place.

The report adds that Hertfordshire's SAFS has won several awards, including the Excellence in Protecting the Public Purse Award at the Institute for Rating Revenue and Valuation (IRRV) conference in October last year, as well as the 'Fraud Prevention Award' at the Public Sector Finance Awards a month later. SAFS also won the Innovation Award at this year's Government Counter Fraud Awards.