West Lothian Council fraud team finds tenant living abroad and sub-letting home

Council staff found one of their tenants actually living abroad and sub-letting their home, councillors heard.

It was one of the success stories in a crackdown on tenancy and blue badge fraud in West Lothian in the last ten months.

Of 21 reported Blue Badge fraud cases, 17 were confirmed between April and December last year.

And of 16 reported cases of tenancy fraud, five were confirmed in the same period, councillors heard.

Details emerged during a round-up of all fraud cases investigated since April described to the Audit Committee.

In his report to the committee, Stuart Saunders, the council’s Audit, Risk and Counter Fraud manager, said: “During the period from April 1, 2025, to December 31, 2025, the Counter Fraud Team closed 61 out of the 80 active investigations.

“Two cases were closed without having conducted an investigation, and 19 investigations that were completed identified no evidence of fraud or irregularity.

“Fraud or irregularity was established in 40 investigations, and 19 investigations were still in progress as at December 31, 2025.”

Councillor Pauline Orr, SNP, asked about the number of investigations and the success rate.

Mr Saunders said reports were on average eight or nine per month. The increase in confirmed cases was down to the “ quality of referrals”.

Chair of the committee, Conservative Angela Doran-Timson, asked specifically about themes behind the Blue Badge frauds.

Mr Saunders told the meeting: “In Blue Badge fraud, we had 17 cases out of 21 confirmed.

“It was our highest number of cases of fraud established so far this year.”

He added: “Blue Badge fraud is a very selfish fraud because it puts the holder at risk [of losing their badge]. There’s no risk to the actual perpetrator who is using the Blue Badge for their own convenience.

“The most common theme is that it is being used without the holder’s knowledge or consent, so we would classify that as ‘holder not present’.”

Councillor Doran-Timson also asked about common themes behind the tenancy frauds.

Mr Saunders told the meeting: “The most common theme for tenancy frauds are the registered tenants not living at the property. So we would class that as ‘non-principle home tenancy fraud’.

“We’ve found tenants living abroad, living elsewhere in the UK, or abandoning their tenancy.

“When housing stock is in such high demand, it is a very significant area, and it’s an area that the fraud team focuses its resources on.

Councillor Doran-Timson asked: “For those five tenancies, have any of those tenancies been returned?”

Mr Saunders replied: “In those cases, we worked with housing colleagues to fully recover the tenancies. In those five cases, four of them we recovered, and one was a false homeless application. So that stops the person from getting into a council tenancy in the first place, which is just as important

“Prevention of fraud is as much part of our remit.”

In four cases, tenancy fraud was not established, while six more investigations are still in progress.

Councillor Doran-Timson said: “It’s fantastic to know that we have our team on this. I’d like to put on record a massive thank you to Stuart and his team. It’s going in the right direction.”

A West Lothian Council spokesperson said: “If we have evidence that a Blue Badge is being used fraudulently, we will issue a warning to the badge holder in the first instance.

“This makes it clear that any further improper use of the badge would lead to it being removed.

“Anyone found to be carrying out tenancy fraud would be expected to return the property to the council immediately, or face legal action to remove them.”

Other types of fraud investigated included: payroll fraud, recruitment fraud (e.g. false qualifications, undeclared convictions), Falsification of payroll claims, thefts and embezzlements, fraudulent claims and criminality, including attempted money laundering.