Strathclyde Police Warning: TROUBLED COUNCIL IS HIT BY PHONE SCAM Other Associate Fraud
Crooks made thousands of pounds worth of calls after stealing sims from alarms. Strathclyde Police Associates, South Lanarkshire.
A FRAUD-HIT council has been forced to call in police for the second time in six months after falling victim to a sophisticated mobile phone scam.
Crooks have racked up thousands of pounds worth of calls at the taxpayers' expense after stealing sim cards from alarm systems installed by South Lanarkshire Council.
It comes just months after the authority, which is facing £55million worth of budget cuts, was stung for more than £100,000 by an African crime gang after officials were duped into paying money into a bogus account.
But now police have been called in again after thieves stole 17 sim cards from residential alarm systems from the homes of elderly and disabled people.
The cards were designed to call only the authority's social work department if the alarm was triggered, but the criminals managed to rig them to make thousands of pounds worth of personal calls from mobile phones.
Bosses at the Labour-run council are said to be furious after hearing about the costly scam only last week following a tip-off from the public.
And it is also understood that Strathclyde Police made initial inquiries with council staff six months ago, but details were only recently passed on to managers.
Last September, forged documents instructing a change of bank details were sent to the council and used to obtain fraudulent payment of £102,000.
At the time councillor Graeme Horne, deputy leader of the SNP opposition group vowed that officials would "tighten up checks to make sure it doesn't happen again". But it emerged yesterday that the authority has lost even more cash to the mobile phone scam.
With approximately 8,000 police officers and 2,600 police staff working round the clock, Strathclyde Police is Scotland's largest police force, and one of the biggest in the UK.
The Force was formed in 1975 and provides a vast range of policing services on behalf of 12 local authorities.
We currently protect nearly 2.3 million people across 5,371 square miles of Scotland — from Glasgow's lively urban areas to the rural remoteness of the Inner Hebrides — with policing services specifically tailored to the individual needs of our various communities.
There are eight territorial divisions within Strathclyde Police, each headed by a divisional commander. Each division is divided into sub divisions, serving the public at a local level.
A FRAUD-HIT council has been forced to call in police for the second time in six months after falling victim to a sophisticated mobile phone scam.
Crooks have racked up thousands of pounds worth of calls at the taxpayers' expense after stealing sim cards from alarm systems installed by South Lanarkshire Council.
It comes just months after the authority, which is facing £55million worth of budget cuts, was stung for more than £100,000 by an African crime gang after officials were duped into paying money into a bogus account.
But now police have been called in again after thieves stole 17 sim cards from residential alarm systems from the homes of elderly and disabled people.
The cards were designed to call only the authority's social work department if the alarm was triggered, but the criminals managed to rig them to make thousands of pounds worth of personal calls from mobile phones.
Bosses at the Labour-run council are said to be furious after hearing about the costly scam only last week following a tip-off from the public.
And it is also understood that Strathclyde Police made initial inquiries with council staff six months ago, but details were only recently passed on to managers.
Last September, forged documents instructing a change of bank details were sent to the council and used to obtain fraudulent payment of £102,000.
At the time councillor Graeme Horne, deputy leader of the SNP opposition group vowed that officials would "tighten up checks to make sure it doesn't happen again". But it emerged yesterday that the authority has lost even more cash to the mobile phone scam.
With approximately 8,000 police officers and 2,600 police staff working round the clock, Strathclyde Police is Scotland's largest police force, and one of the biggest in the UK.
The Force was formed in 1975 and provides a vast range of policing services on behalf of 12 local authorities.
We currently protect nearly 2.3 million people across 5,371 square miles of Scotland — from Glasgow's lively urban areas to the rural remoteness of the Inner Hebrides — with policing services specifically tailored to the individual needs of our various communities.
There are eight territorial divisions within Strathclyde Police, each headed by a divisional commander. Each division is divided into sub divisions, serving the public at a local level.
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