Highland Council cheque scam like DiCaprio film plot
The authority’s audit and scrutiny committee was updated about the fraud and irregularity investigations council auditors had carried out during 2011/12.
Councillors learned that a cheque issued by the council for a £25 payment was obtained by fraudsters who changed the name of the intended recipient and altered the amount to £2580.
That hefty sum was subsequently paid out from the authority’s bank account and the incident reported to Northern Constabulary but the culprit has not been caught.
The full sum will be repaid to the council by its bank but committee member and former Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MSP Jamie Stone said the fraud, which occurred at an undisclosed location, sounded like the plot of a hit film which was based on the true story of an American conman.
“The reference to the cheque for £25 which was altered to £2580 smacks of that film Catch Me if You Can,” said Councillor Stone at the committee meeting in Inverness last Thursday.
“While I know the money is being refunded by the bank, does it possibly raise questions about the way our machines and printers are spitting out our cheques?
“These days it ought to be impossible to adjust the figures, unless you are exceedingly clever.”
Nigel Rose, the council’s head of internal audit and risk management, said the fraud was a rare case but an “extremely sophisticated” crime.
“We have looked into it and we are happy it was an isolated incident and it was reported to the police,” said Mr Rose. “There was nothing much more we could have done.”
Catch Me if You Can was a Steven Spielberg-directed film released in 2002 which told the story of Frank Abagnale Jr who obtained millions of pounds primarily through cheque fraud.
Abagnale, who was played by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, had performed cons by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a doctor and a parish prosecutor in the 1960s before his arrest.
After he left crime behind the FBI later sought advice from him on catching other cheque forgers because he had been so skilled.