A COUNCIL licensing officer has been jailed for nine months after he pocketed almost £17,000 in taxi fees.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Robin Hargreaves, 49, who supervised the area's taxi drivers, took the cash because he was in debt -- and because it was easy. He was rumbled when an audit was carried out in January of this year and he claimed the receipts book was missing.

Today it was revealed that Hyndburn Council, which had believed its system was foolproof, has now intorduced much tighter rules to prevent fraud.

Hargreaves, of Limefield Street, Accrington, who had no previous convictions, admitted 10 counts of theft from the council. The court heard that his thefts totalled £16,500, between 1998 and 2000 and he was sent to prison by Judge Barbara Watson.

The court was told the defendant worked unsupervised and when cabbies went to renew their licenses for £175, Hargreaves would enter a £13 replacement licence fee in the books instead. An audit had not been carried out for several years, the court was told.

Hargreaves, it was claimed, took the money to clear off his debts and was not living a lavish lifestyle.

He told auditors the receipts book was missing and always knew he would be found out as what he had done was so easy. Hargreaves, a former bus driver, resigned from the council after an internal inquiry revealed financial irregularities within his department. He left his post two weeks after being suspended. After the case, Dan Sherry, deputy chief executive for Hyndburn Borough Council, said: "This is a case of an individual spotting a weakness in the system and exploiting it.

"At that time we believed the system to be foolproof but this has pointed out the weakness and that has been rectified.

"We introduced a much tighter system once the fraud was detected. Additional checks were implemented as soon as it was discovered so that one individual person is not responsible for those procedures. For example one person will now take the money and another complete the paperwork.

"The way the court has dealt with this has demonstrated the seriousness of what has happened and it also emphasises the position of trust that local authority officers are in and how that can be abused. But there is no way it could happen again."