Council loses £3,500 in shipping container fraud

A council lost more than £3,500 when a shipping container it ordered never arrived.

Bridgend council paid £3,658 up front, half of the total cost, but the container was not delivered and the sale was identified as fraud.

A request for the remainder of the payment had been rejected and the authority said it had tried to contact the firm it bought the container from, but it is unsure if it will succeed in recovering the money.

The council's governance and audit committee heard officers would investigate if there had been a breach in procedure in order to prevent it happening again, although it was deemed a one-off incident.

While it was unclear exactly why the shipping container had been bought, some members pointed out a number of others had been set up in Porthcawl for start-up businesses to use.

Council bosses heard about the purchase during discussions about an audit inquiries letter to Audit Wales.

Part of the report given to councillors noted a case of "actual, suspected, or alleged fraud" in relation to the missing shipping container.

The letter that was submitted to Audit Wales said: "The council ordered a shipping container which did not arrive and paid 50% up-front.

"This has been identified as a fraud and a request for the final 50% payment was rejected."

Steven Easterbrook, Independent councillor for Bridgend Central, described the situation as embarrassing and said the authority needed to be "a lot more careful" in the future.

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