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Maesteg: £250k fraud council had signed blank cheques

BBC Margaret BuckleyBBC
Margaret Buckley made payments to herself worth over £80,000

A town council defrauded of almost £250,000 signed blank cheques and failed to scrutinise their clerk's spending according to a report.

Margaret Buckley, 76, was jailed last week for taking money from Maesteg Town Council.

An Audit Wales report found she took more than £80,000 for herself and funnelled substantial sums to her local church.

The council has been asked to comment.

The report found no evidence that recipients were aware the money was stolen.

It blamed poor financial management and a lack of oversight within the council for creating "an environment that Mrs Buckley was able to exploit".

Audit Wales said it had "identified significant failings by the Council over a prolonged period of time," adding there were "inconsistencies and omissions in the Council's accounting systems and records".

Between 2016 and 2019, Mrs Buckley made payments to herself worth £80,595 and family members worth £3,850.

Our Lady and St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church received £18,866, while a further £134,895 was given to its fundraising arm, the Flower Group.

Geograph Maesteg town councilGeograph
The clerk at Maesteg town council used blank cheques to pay herself and others

The report author said it was "possible that more irregular payments were made before April 2015".

Ms Buckley was sentenced to two years and four months in prison at Cardiff Crown Court, after pleading guilty to defrauding Maesteg Town Council.

Analysis by Audit Wales found the proportion of the council's money taken by Ms Buckley amounted to more than a quarter of its total non-pay expenditure across the four years in question.

The report said despite this, council members "did not appear to have questioned in detail the level of expenditure being incurred".

Interviews conducted with current and former members of the council during the audit process found all of those asked admitted to having signed blank cheques.

Audit Wales said that amounted to "a systemic failure by all authorised signatories to scrutinise the payments made".

Maesteg Town Council has since received an insurance payout to recoup the majority of its losses.