this woman could save you #40m

She is the investigator who uncovered the dirty underbelly of fraud in Glasgow City Council, but it is only the tip of the iceberg for Carol Giannini and her team of 'Untouchables'

THE Untouchables have arrived to sort out Glasgow's sleazy City Hall. In the role of Elliot Ness, the righteous G-man who took on corruption, crime and the mafia in 1920s Chicago, Glasgow has cast a diminutive 39-year-old single mum called Carol Giannini. As head of the Benefits Agency Fraud investigations team, she was drafted in by the city's scandal-plagued council to weed out the bad, name and shame the corrupt and bring moral rectitude back to the rotten borough of Glasgow.

Wearing metaphorical white hats in the Dodge City that is the council's George Square HQ, Giannini's team soon earned their "Untouchables" monicker from their colleagues. They had to be whiter than white if they were to deal with the scandalous shambles at the City Chambers. Just as Ness hand-picked a team with an almost frightening zeal for law and order, Giannini has surrounded herself with eight investigators - four from within the council and four from her own Benefits Agency inspectors - with unimpeachable credentials to once and for all eradicate council corruption.

It started last week when Giannini exposed 80 staff as welfare fraudsters who were working for the council and signing on illegally for benefit, including the council's own housing benefit. Between them they had ripped off the Department of Social Security for around half a million pounds. Files are now winging their way to the police and procurator fiscals. While not quite as bad as a spell in Barlinnie Prison, the public relations disaster facing the city fathers over the fraud scam is sending a shiver down the collective spine of those inhabitant in the City Chamber's marbled halls. From Alex Mosson, the city's Lord Provost, to the office cleaners, no-one can be underestimating the disastrous PR fall-out of revelations that the council's own staff have been taking money out of the pockets of Greater Glasgow's 1.3 million inhabitants.

Giannini - quietly studying for a masters degree while busting the biggest racket in the city's history - and her investigators will not be leaving the council's George Square HQ until the end of April. When her investigations are finally complete, she expects to see at least 250 people facing criminal charges for benefit fraud worth an estimated #1.5 million. The Benefits Agency Fraud team are already co- ordinating another two council investigations at North Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire, and Giannini expects that every council in Scotland will, by the end of the year, have called in The Untouchables. The East Dunbartonshire operation has pin-pointed more than 50 cases of fraud worth #90,000 in false claims and 14 workers face prosecution. North Lanarkshire has not yet revealed details of its operation.

John Brown, head of Glasgow City Council public relations, is determined to make the exposure of his 80 fraudulent colleagues a "good news story" for the council. And no-one can say he is not fighting a good fight. "The council was planning a crackdown on benefit frauds throughout the city, and we decided we needed to get our own house in order first," Brown said. "We want to wipe out any corruption or criminal activity." Giannini's team began pouring over tens of thousands of computer files last October, cross-referencing council employee names against social security claims. By Monday, the first part of their investigation was complete and the 80 staff found themselves facing the sack and criminal charges.

"If we found a member of staff who had a social security claim, then we realised we were looking at a potential fraud. If you're in work then you can't be receiving benefits," Giannini said.

She cuts a quiet character. In her office at the DSS headquarters in Bridgeton, she blushes easily when her boss Ian Greenshields commends her on successfully carrying out the Benefits Agency's most successful operation. "This has been a master-stroke," he said. "We've wheedled out nearly every fraudster in Glasgow City Council." For the council, however, it is something of a pyrrhic victory. It has simply reminded the public of the series of sleaze scandals which has plagued the City Chambers. The corruption has been pervasive, ranging from last year's Scotland-England ticket fiasco to junketing scandals; and from bullying at work to allegations of nepotism and favouritism. In the eyes of the public, Glasgow ranks with North Lanarkshire, infamous for infighting and over-spending, as one of the dirtiest councils this side of Tammany Hall. As the average punter on Sauchiehall Street would put it: Glasgow City Council is "at it".

Scottish National Party MSP Nicola Sturgeon said the council had to convince the public that it was corruption-free, while the Tories' home affairs spokesperson Lyndsay McIntosh said: "It just seems to be one disaster after another." The best the council's chief executive, Jimmy Andrew, could do in the face of such stinging criticism was meekly claim that he was "committed to tackling fraud". City Chambers spin-doctor John Brown is a little moreforthright; after all it's his job is to clean up the Labour-run council's appalling image. "We've made it clear that wrong-doing won't be tolerated - that goes for everyone," he said. "Corruption and criminal behaviour will end in disciplinary actions and the courts." To its credit, Glasgow City Council has led the way in rooting out fraud, and Brown is now a gleeful zealot for probity. He launched a scheme 18 months ago to out 7000 staff who had not paid their poll tax. "If we are telling the public it's wrong to dodge council tax and cheat the DSS, then we can't do it ourselves."

Each year Glasgow City Council pays out #350m in benefits, most of which goes to the 110,000 people claiming housing benefit. Staff in the council cheating the benefits system were making false claims for income support, housing benefit, incapacity benefit and even job seekers allowance. The council claims none of the fraud was organised. The 80 fraudsters included full-time, part-time and "sessional" employees. Their salaries ranged from around #7000 to #20,000 and the amount of money defrauded varied from a few hundred to tens of thousands of pounds.

SOME of the fraudsters had been claiming benefits for up to seven years, and one as far back as the 1980s. The average fraud among the 80 was #6000. Last week, disciplinary action began against 18 of the swindlers. Some of them are ex-employees who will obviously not face disciplinary action; however they, like the rest, face criminal charges. All current staff members will be disciplined - most likely sacked - over the next few weeks.

"There really are very few options open to us apart from dismissal," said John Brown. "Most of this fraud was down to greed. This doesn't smack of corruption. This is a case of individuals who work in the council abusing the system." According to Brown, the fraudsters came from across the spectrum of council departments - sports centres, social work, care homes, cleaners, home helps and park attendants.

The huge operation - the first of its kind in the UK - has pin- pointed a glaring loop-hole in the benefits system. The investigation team realised their task could have been completed in minutes rather than months if there was a computer link-up between the DSS and the Inland Revenue. Both the council and the Benefits Agency say they want the government to order the creation of an electronic "spotter" system which would immediately "red flag" anyone making a fraudulent claim.

Peter Meehan, head of Glasgow City Council's housing benefit department, said: "If the Inland Revenue and the DSS were linked by computer we would know every time someone who was paying income tax, and therefore working, made a claim for benefit. If someone tried to sign on, the computer would flash a warning that they were working. It would be a perfect safeguard. At the moment there are no safeguards. Without this, we are trying to fight fraudsters with one hand tied behind our back." John Brown said Glasgow City Council will raise the issue with both Westminster and Holyrood through the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

Among council staff there is the feeling that something a little Orwellian is happening around them. One staff member said: "It's a bit like 'Big Brother is watching you'. You get the feeling that the council is so keen to clean up its act that it's actively hunting for people it can hit with allegations of wrong-doing. The current mood is purge, purge, purge." Brown, however, says the innocent have nothing to fear. Social Security Secretary Alistair Darling has told Benefits Agency inspectors that he is delighted with the results of the investigation. One DSS insider said: "Darling is of the belief that if he were Napoleon, then this is his Austerlitz." The Benefits Agency is so determined to do its master's bidding and tackle widespread fraud that it is even sending its investigators on special training courses with security firms staffed by former SAS officers and Special Branch agents - which certainly plays up to Giannini's Untouchable tag.

One of the other reasons behind the Glasgow City Council operation was government pressure exerted on the 50 local authorities suffering the worst levels of benefit fraud. The DSS told them quite simply to get their houses in order; it goes without saying that Glasgow topped the league table. This summer, benefit fraud inspectors will also be warning Glasgow City Council to tighten up its procedures for spotting false claims. Even city fathers expect the inspectors to be highly critical of their checking system. The UK pays out #100bn a year in state benefits, of that #4bn is lost through fraud. Around #40m - which Giannini is tasked with recovering - is lost in Scotland. Some #75m worth of fraud is perpetrated in Glasgow alone. The Glasgow City Council operation cost just #30,000. On the balance sheet - which is all the money-men at the DSS Whitehall headquarters think about - that means that for every #1 the operation cost, the DSS saved #16.66.

Despite being the woman who snared 80 fraudsters - and looks set to nab another 200 by the time the investigation is complete - Giannini can be lenient, even compassionate, with her catches. If they are first-time offenders and have not defrauded more than #1500, Giannini will simply order they repay the cash plus a third. "In special circumstances, if the person is just at the end of their tether, we will also consider not pushing for a prosecution."

Right now, Giannini is the DSS's golden girl. The Benefits Agency is under enormous pressure to slash benefit crime and it needs women like her. The DSS has ordered that fraud be cut by 10% by 2002 and by 30% by 2007. So far, thanks to operations like Giannini's, it is on target.

The next big crackdown in the city by Giannini's team will be another joint operation between Glasgow City Council and the Benefits Agency targeting 20 rogue landlords who are operating benefit scams worth millions of pounds. Their frauds see them claiming housing benefit for dead or non-existent tenants and setting up illegal "giro drops". The rogue landlords are each creaming up to #30,000 per year from the city. Between April last year and January 2000 there were 507 people caught defrauding the DSS in Glasgow. Some 262 went to court. The total value of their fraud was #4.5m - a fraction of the government's losses in Glasgow. Across Scotland, 1450 were caught fiddling the system to the tune of #10m - again only a fraction of total losses.

Giannini is modestly clear about her role. "I'm here to stop people committing crime. There are millions of people who need state benefits. If we allow fraudsters to exploit the system, the innocent and needy suffer. That's quite a simple moral equation - the good deserve our help, and the bad deserve to be punished."

Copyright 2000
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