More than half a million pounds of public money was given out to fraudulent businesses on the Wirral.
A report presented to Wirral Council’s audit and risk management committee showed that £657,216 was given out in Covid support grants to businesses who claimed they were struggling during the pandemic but later turned out to be fraudulent or wrong claims.
More than £104m was given out to businesses over two years in total but due to checks placed by the council ahead of the money being given out, only 0.6% of this was given fraud or incorrect payments. These checks included looking at financial records before giving out the money.
