Now Parking Fraud Rocks Lambeth

12.49.00pm GMT Wed 12th Nov 2008

Another week, another Lambeth fraud. This time it's Lambeth's Parking Service that's hitting the headlines again for all the wrong reasons. Not only has the Labour-run Council been fleecing residents of money because of over-zealous wardens but Lambeth staff, an investigation has revealed, have been creaming off the profits for themselves.

Residents who paid a parking fines in cash at the Brixton Parking Shop between mid-2006 and late-2007 may well have been paying towards an unofficial staff bonus. The lucrative scam, thought to have netted at least £15,000, was only revealed after a whistle-blower called time.

The official report to Council's Corporate Committee said, " The investigation identified serious weaknesses in controls relating to the recording of sales of visitor parking permits and identified 500 cases of 'skimming' - the non-recording or under-recording of sales."

Worryingly, the report concluded, "The investigation was unable to estimate the actual loss."

Lambeth was also unable to find sufficient evidence against seven employees to take further action while one employee remains suspended.

Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader Cllr Ashley Lumsden, said, "Once again Labour-run Lambeth has been shown to have such weak financial controls that it doesn't know, or appear to want to know, how much money has been stolen."

Councillor Lumsden added, "Coming so soon after some £14 million has gone walkabout on renting private accommodation for homeless families that was not checked to see if it really existed, in some cases on addresses that aren't on the council's address database, this should come as no surprise to anyone."

Worryingly, Lambeth says it is to conduct a review of operations next week at its Lambeth Towers Parking Shop in Kennington. Who knows what they'll find!