Fraudsters in Colchester are being targeted by council officials through a major crackdown.

During the past six months Colchester Council has stopped £233,000 of attempted and actual fraud and recovered £37,000 of illegal housing benefit claims.

Benefit fraud is the number one risk facing local government according to the Audit Commission.

In a bid to combat false claims, the council runs a benefit fraud hotline for reporting suspected cases and works with the Post Office to prevent benefit cheques from being redirected.

The council's corporate audit manager, Rob Bradbury, said: "We are not complacent but we are confident that we have in place, or are about to put in place, all of the measures which the Audit Commission has outlined.

"I think it would be fair to say we are in the forefront of the fight against housing benefit fraud and we are one of only 50 authorities in Britain which have implemented the DSS verification framework.

"Our message to anyone who seeks to defraud the council is that we will find you out, and we will prosecute where appropriate."

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