Data from the institute’s third annual counter fraud and corruption tracker shows the overall number of fraud cases dropped, down from 77,000 cases in 2015/16, but the average value of each fraud increased, from £3,400 to £4,500.

CIPFA identified the three greatest fraud risk areas for local government as being procurement, adult social care and council tax single person discount.

An estimated 40% of all fraud committed against local authorities concerns abuse of the procurement cycle, with an estimated value of £6.2m in losses per year.

Adult social care fraud has shown the largest growth in the past year, with an estimated £5.6m investigated cases, compared with £3m in 2016.

The highest number of investigations related to council tax fraud (76%) with a value of £25.5m, while the highest value area of fraud is housing with an estimated total of £263.4m.

Peter Wilson, director of counter fraud at CIPFA, said: ‘CIPFA’s report is a stark reminder of the scale and breadth of the fraud threat, but it is also a useful indicator of where resources should be directed for us to tackle the problem head on.

‘The more we discuss fraud and the more information we share about where fraud is happening, the better we will all be at stamping it out. Our public services are already under tremendous financial pressure and so it is crucial criminals are not allowed to syphon cash away from where it is needed.’

The CIPFA Fraud and Corruption Tracker 2017 is here.

Report by Pat Sweet