A woman who was arrested today as part of an ongoing fraud investigation following a dawn raid in south Liverpool has been released on bail.
Early this morning, police officers were seen entering a property in the Livingston Drive area of Aigburth in south Liverpool. Two Merseyside Police Matrix vans were seen at the site, with at a large number of uniformed officers and several detectives entering the property.
Following the raid, Merseyside Police has today confirmed that a 47-year-old woman had been arrested as part of an ongoing operation into fraud. The ECHO understands the operation in question is Operation Aloft, which has already resulted in the arrests of numerous figures linked to Liverpool City Council.
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Confirming the arrest, a police statement read: "Detectives have arrested a woman as part of an ongoing operation into fraud.
"The woman has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office and breaches under the Data Protection Act.
"The arrest took place at an address in Aigburth earlier today (Monday October 31 2022) and the woman has been taken to a police station where she is being interviewed by detectives."
In an updated statement issued at 4pm today, a Merseyside Police spokesperson confirmed the woman had been released on bail. The spokesperson said: "A 47-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office and breaches under the Data Protection Act as part of an ongoing investigation, has been released on conditional bail pending further inquiries."
Operation Aloft was launched in 2019 to investigate suspected fraud related to building and development contracts in Liverpool. In December 2019 the operation saw Liverpool Council's former director of regeneration Nick Kavanagh arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and misconduct in public office.
Just over a year later, in December 2020, then Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson and four other men - including his son David Anderson - were arrested in connection with offences of bribery and witness intimidation as part of the same operation. All three have denied wrongdoing and no one has been charged with any offence at this stage.
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