19 May 2006
Network Rail this week revealed that two of its senior executives were among 4,300 staff targeted by criminals in Whitehall's multi-million pound tax credits fraud.
Deputy chief executive Iain Coucher and group director for government and corporate affairs Victoria Pender were both victims of fraudsters who obtained personal details, including National Insurance numbers, of the organisation's staff last year.
A spokesman for Network Rail confirmed the executives' names to Public Finance. 'Fraudsters effectively hacked the personal details of both, and obtained details of 4,300 of our staff,' he said.
Some of the stolen data was used to obtain tax credits paid by Whitehall's Revenue & Customs department. In a similar incident, organised criminals stole details of 8,800 staff at the Department for Work and Pensions last year.
Police investigations into both incidents continue.
However, the spokesman said that officials were 'confident that the breach of security that led to the tax credits fraud came from outside of Network Rail'.
That will merely fuel fears that criminals are finding it easy to access personal details of both public service staff and the wider public in attempting to defraud the benefits system.
The National Audit Office this week told PF that it is mulling over a request from an influential MP to investigate claims that the Network Rail and DWP thefts were merely the tip of the iceberg.
Richard Bacon, Conservative MP and a senior member of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, wrote to auditor general Sir John Bourn on May 14 requesting a full investigation.
Referring to leaked details of the DWP's internal fraud investigation, Bacon wrote: 'I understand that this incident may only be one of a series of episodes of significant organised fraud involving the theft of personal identities from government databases, which are now under investigation.'
The NAO has qualified the DWP's annual accounts for the past 16 years and Bacon claimed the department's 'ability to account for how it spends public money is getting worse'.
Bourn has also qualified the R&C's accounts for the past three years, citing concerns over how the department accounts for cash spent on tax credits.
Bacon warned: 'My concern is that the security of individuals' personal details has been far more severely compromised than may have been realised by the public.'
PFmay2006
