Council spending review on private detectives payment

Jan 8 2012 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

A SPENDING probe is under way at a North council after the Sunday Sun uncovered how private detectives have earned more than £35,000 for carrying out its work.

Our investigation has revealed Middlesbrough forked out £35,609 over four years to sleuths – that’s the highest amount paid out by any of the region’s authorities.

The council claims the work of the private investigators could have potentially saved taxpayers’ cash because – among other jobs – they were employed to snoop on folk planning to sue the council.

Using Freedom of Information laws, we learned other North councils have also hired their services, to carry out surveillance on folk suing authorities, serve legal papers and even for surveillance operations in child protection cases.

But after we unearthed the statistics, Middlesbrough council bosses pledged to review its spending on investigators.

A spokesman for the council said: “Private investigators are occasionally used to establish the validity of insurance claims against the local authority, and their use can lead to substantial savings for Council Tax payers.

“These figures also include payments to a local firm to ensure that confidential documents are served on individuals involved in court proceedings. These often relate to highly sensitive child welfare cases and cannot be sent by conventional mail.

“This approach was adopted as it was considered more cost-effective than using social workers to attempt to serve the documents in potentially difficult circumstances.

“The system will be reviewed with a view to improving the service and identifying potential savings.”