Council fraudster pocketed £200k of taxpayers' cash after 'abusing position'

A former council worker has admitted to defrauding a London borough out of more than £200,000 in public funds.

Akinremi Akintokunbo, who previously held the role of Assistant Market Manager at Havering Council, entered a guilty plea to a single count under Section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006 at Barkingside Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Court documents revealed that Akintokunbo exploited his position within the council to carry out the scheme over a nine-month period.

The fraud took place between March and December 2024, during which time he processed bogus refund payments to himself.

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The court heard Akintokunbo acted dishonestly with the intention of making personal gains whilst causing financial loss to the local authority.

His actions were described as an abuse of his trusted position within the council's market operations.

The scheme involved Akintokunbo using a council chip-and-pin device to process 133 separate refund transactions into his own accounts.

These fraudulent payments were made over the course of approximately nine months, from March 2, 2024 until December 5, 2024.

The total sum stolen through this method amounted to £208,700 of taxpayers' money.

Each transaction was processed using official council payment equipment, allowing Akintokunbo to exploit the refund system whilst working in his role overseeing market operations.

The offences were found to be in breach of Section 4 of the Fraud Act 2006, which relates to fraud by abuse of position.

This section of the legislation applies to individuals who occupy a position where they are expected to safeguard the financial interests of another party but instead exploit that trust for personal gain.

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The case has now been transferred to Snaresbrook Crown Court, where Akintokunbo will face sentencing at a later date.

Proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act will also take place, which could see authorities seek to recover the stolen funds. No date has yet been set for the crown court hearing.

The magistrates' court has instructed the probation service to compile a pre-sentence report, which will assist the judge in determining an appropriate punishment.

Councillor Sue Benjamins, the council's Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, expressed her gratitude to everyone who worked on the case.

She said: "It beggars' belief that anyone can think they can get away with something like this. Particularly in this case that involved such a large sum of taxpayers' money.

"It was down to the diligence of our finance team that this crime was spotted and he was quickly dismissed while the investigation took place

"We have a zero tolerance policy, and we will deploy all necessary resources to protect the Council and public funds from those who would seek to do harm or abuse their positions," she stated.

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