HOUSING benefit fraud worth £600,000 has been uncovered by council investigators in Burnley.

But few of the cheats who claim rent subsidy or cash allowances ever face action in the criminal courts.

They are simply ordered to pay back the rent benefit or council tax rebate they should have paid in the first place had they not made false claims about low incomes or their personal circumstances.

The annual figures were revealed today as Government spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, called for action after announcing that £1 billion is being lost each year to housing benefit cheats.

Although Burnley council has tracked down nearly double the amount of fraud claims demanded by the the Government, Rob Aspbury, the man in charge of council investigations agrees the totals uncovered form only the tip of the fraud iceberg.

"I believe there is much more to go for and we are taking further steps to ensure we take full advantage of the new laws which provide us with more powers to deal with the problem," he said. He added that usually only in cases where organised fraud was uncovered did the authority press for action in the criminal courts - relying otherwise on civil court proceedings to recover money.

He said the area of greatest concern was the private sector where sometimes landlords were paid cash allowances after claiming for non-existent tenants.

The council, he added, had adopted a pro-active policy including regular home visits and a confidential hot-line which people could call to provide information on cheating.

Burnley people receive around £24 million-a-year in Government housing and council tax benefits.

Around 74 per cent of the 5,000 plus council tenants are on some form of housing benefit - available to low income household to help them meet their rents.

About 65 per cent of authority tenants pay no rent at all.

Mr Aspbury said that although his department was increasingly vigilant on cheating, its main aim was to ensure that low income families who qualified for benefit received it.

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