I AM infuriated by fraud. Billions of pounds of taxpayers' hard-earned money are annually leached away at every level - local, national, EU and international - by thieves who rarely seem to face prosecution or even investigation.

When is somebody going to initiate rigorous checks to ensure that public money goes where it is intended and that cheating parasites are hounded?

KEITH ELLEL, Westwood Avenue, Rishton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.