Counter Fraud Service

We will support you with a broad range of award winning anti-fraud activities.

We will provide you with a bespoke service designed to suit your organisation’s needs.

Our expert team can enhance your organisations’ ability to detect and prevent fraud, corruption and money-laundering through:

full lifecycle investigations and prosecutions
effective risk management
proactive data analytics
bespoke customer relationship management
24 / 7 confidential fraud reporting systems
counter fraud training for your teams and partners
regular fraud threat alerts and best practice sharing
recovery of financial losses.

Specialist areas

We specialise in counter fraud measures in a large number of areas including:

Blue Badge – misuse and counterfeit badges
care services – for adults and children
commissioning of services – including joint commissioning and third sector partnerships, conflicts of interest and collusion
Council Tax – false claims for discounts
cyber-enabled fraud – enables a range of fraud types resulting in diversion of funds, creation of false applications for services and payments
employee fraud – for example, diverting monies to personal accounts, accepting bribes, false overtime claims and expenses
grants – work not carried out, funds diverted, ineligibility not declared
housing – fraudulent applications, unlawful sub-letting and abandonment of properties
immigration – false entitlement to services and payments, sham marriages
insurance fraud – false loss claims for example for injury and vehicle damage
identity fraud – the use of false identities and fictitious persons
money laundering – exposure to suspect transactions
procurement – tendering issues, split contracts, double invoicing
schools – procurement fraud, payroll fraud, internal fraud
no recourse to public funds – fraudulent claim of eligibility.

Our team

We are fully trained and accredited to conduct criminal, civil and disciplinary investigations. Our investigations comply with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and each partner organisation’s investigation will be in line with their organisational policies and procedures.

Our team are members of the Government Counter Fraud Profession, a community of organisations across government protecting public services from fraud. Our knowledge, skills and experience have been assessed to meet the high professional standards and competencies of the profession.

We're an award wining team, having achieved:

Highly Commended in the IRRV’s Excellence in Counter Fraud Awards 2018
winners of the Judges Award in the Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally Awards
winners of ‘Outstanding Partnership’ at the Tackling Economic Crime Awards 2019
winners of ‘Outstanding Male Professional’ at the Tackling Economic Crime Awards 2020
finalists in ‘Outstanding Proactive Fraud Detection and Recovery’ in the Public Finance Awards 2022.

Our leadership team manage a dedicated team of intelligence officers, fraud investigators, financial investigators and data analysts.

Nick Jennings – Head of Service

Nick leads the Shared Anti-Fraud Service. He has worked in public sector counter fraud roles for over 25 years and formed SAFS in 2015. Nick holds the Professionalism in Security qualification and is an Accredited Counter Fraud Manager.

Paula Hornsby – Counter Fraud Manager

Paula is an Accredited Counter Fraud Manager and is a Senior Authorising Officer under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, and a Money Laundering Reporting Officer.

Darren Bowler – Counter Fraud Manager

Darren became part of the SAFS team after a long and successful career in policing. Darren is a SAFS Senior Authorising Officer under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 and a Money Laundering Reporting Officer.

Join the team

We welcome new and experienced fraud professionals.

We value and rely on high quality training and accreditation – if you join the team, one of the following may be funded for your development (depending on role):

Counter Fraud Apprenticeship (Level 4)
Data Analyst Apprenticeship (Level 4)
Accredited Counter Fraud Technician (ACFTech)
Accredited Counter Fraud Specialist (ACFS).

We offer flexible working arrangements – staff can set their own hours, build up flexitime, and work from their preferred location / work remotely.

Check our job vacancies

And we're proud to collaborate with a number of registered housing providers and the following anti-fraud organisations:

Counter Fraud Service

Counter Fraud Service

Specialist areas

Our team

Rate this page