A Council finance officer has been jailed over a fraud that involved stealing more than £76,000 from Richmond's budget for social care.

The money was provided for adults who need support, such as personal carers and assistants, to live a normal life in the community.

It has emerged that the finance officer was hired by a recruitment agency in January 2020 and was working for the Council despite the fact that no previous employment references were provided or checked.

The Council said that the fraudster was working from home, but officials were unsure of his address at the time he was siphoning off tens of thousands of pounds.

The same individual was part of a team that works for Wandsworth Borough Council, where another £80,000 was stolen.

None of the money has been recovered from the fraudster, according to a Council report.

Details have only just emerged in a report for Richmond Council's Audit, Standards and Statutory Accounts Committee, which is meeting this week.

The finance officer involved, Emrah Derin, aged 32, whose address was given a the Old Kent Road, Southwark, has been jailed for two years and two months.

The Council report explained that recipients of social care are given pre-paid Debit Cards with a fixed sum of money on them. These individuals use this budget to commission and pay for carers or assistants and cover other living cost essentials.

The report said that any money that is not spent can be reclaimed by Council finance officers – in the Direct Payments Team - and effectively goes back to the Council's coffers.

However, it emerged that a rogue Direct Payments Officer was diverting a succession of payments to his own bank accounts.

The fraud was only identified after a fellow Payments Officer noticed suspicious activity on accounts they were responsible for.

The report said: "The agency Direct Payments Officer was identified (known as Mr D.) and records showed that he had worked for the Council since the 8th January 2020. He was employed on a 36-hour rolling contract via a Recruitment Agency.

"The retained recruitment records include an employment CV listing several previous employers, but there were no employment references."

It added: "Mr D had discovered an opportunity where he believed that he could steal funds and remain undetected. He discovered that when transferring surplus funds back to the Council he could put in his own bank account details rather than returning the funds to the Council's bank accounts.

"He could legitimately identify service user accounts where surplus balances had accrued, notify the service users that monies where being withdrawn, supposedly returning the balance to the Council, but then insert his own account details to steal the funds. These thefts are from Council funds and have not directly affected the

funding available to individual service users."

The report said: "He counted on taking advantage of a stretched service, due to imposed operational changes as a result of the Covid pandemic, that his activity would go unnoticed as individual service users were not affected and would not challenge the account withdrawals."

In total some 60 transactions involving a total of £153,566.05 were withdrawn from Richmond and Wandsworth client user accounts and transferred to three bank accounts. All three belonged to the fraudster.

It said: "For Richmond, 13 transactions relating to 10 service users and totalling £76,857.98 were highlighted."

On the prosecution, the report states Deren was charged with and pleaded to Fraud by Abuse of Position at Wimbledon Magistrates Court last September.

It added: "The case was referred up to Kingston Crown Court for sentencing and on 15th December 2021 Mr D was handed a custodial sentence of 2 years and 2 months.

"The Judge declined to impose a confiscation order due to a lack of assets held by Mr D but did award a low-level compensation order of £1,180 (effectively all known assets for Mr D)."

The Council has since put in place a number of safeguards to prevent any repeat. This includes a new regime that ensures that any surpluses from social care client accounts can only be transferred to registered Council bank accounts.

It is also improving the vetting of staff, adding: "The service is reviewing its use of Agency Staff for key positions such as Direct Payment Officers who can access client accounts. Employment references will be checked and scrutinised before engagement of agency staff is agreed."