Action on benefit fraud increases

The number of people prosecuted for benefit fraud in a city has risen by 88% in a year, a council says.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council said its benefit fraud investigators prosecuted 49 people in the past year, compared to 26 the year before.

In total 157 people were "sanctioned" last year and £382,362 was recovered as a result, it said.

The council said the rise in prosecutions showed its determination to crackdown on benefit crime.

The amount of cash now being recovered from fraudulently-claimed benefits now totals nearly £1m in three years, it added.

Fraud and interventions manager Paul Bicknell said his department worked closely with the Department of Work and Pensions.

"We will work tirelessly to find those who try to abuse the system and people who commit these offences must realise that they may find themselves up before the courts," he said.