Over £5 million in fraud detected in Northern Ireland since 2018, leading initiative reveals

By Connor Stringer

Over £5 million in fraudulent transactions have been detected or prevented in Northern Ireland since April 2018, a new report by the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) has revealed.

The scheme uses a data matching tool which helps to identify potentially fraudulent and erroneous transactions, using sophisticated computer-based data matching techniques. 

In one case, NFI data matching identified a property avoiding rates dating back to 2014, resulting in a large bill being issued to recover the outstanding tax worth £18,820.

Over 80 public bodies took part in this sixth running of the exercise in Northern Ireland, including government departments, agencies, non-departmental public bodies, councils and health sector bodies. 

The initiative also saved the Health Service an estimated £2.7 million, by removing from the GP register over 1,200 people, who were unable to demonstrate entitlement to publicly funded services.

Northern Ireland data was also matched with data held by public sector organisations in England, Scotland and Wales, providing a cross-jurisdictional approach to tackling fraud.

Mr Kieran Donnelly, Comptroller and Auditor General said the report was 'essential' in minimising losses of public money to fraud.

He said: “Preventing and detecting fraud is a challenge for all organisations, including the public sector. It is essential that organisations in receipt of public money do all that they can to minimise losses to fraud, in order to maximise the proper use of funding for public services.

"An emerging challenge is the fraud risks associated with the Covid-19 pandemic and I will engage positively with NFI colleagues to ensure that data matching can be used to best effect to address these risks”.