Police probe alleged attempt to defraud OIC

An alleged attempt to defraud Orkney Islands Council (OIC) is under investigation, it has emerged.

The local authority is keeping tight-lipped about the matter, which was first mentioned during a meeting of the monitoring and audit committee last month.

The group of councillors scrutinise the work of the OIC internal audit team, which provided an update on its activities in 2024/25.

“There was a potential fraud issue reported this year and the investigation into this is still ongoing,” chief internal auditor Andrew Paterson said during the meeting on August 28.

Since then, a spokeswoman for the local authority has added that the probe related to an external party allegedly trying to commit a fraud against the council, and that the details have been passed to Police Scotland.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman told The Orcadian that the force received a report of a fraud on April 9, and that enquiries are ongoing.