INVESTIGATORS have carried out more than 200 raids on the homes of suspected benefit cheats after it lost £100,000 to fraudsters.

Now North Wiltshire District Council is warning it is hot on the heels of more fraudsters and urging people to shop their neighbours if they think they are making false claims.

The council, which pays out £4 million each year in housing and council tax benefit, has seen a sharp rise in fraudulent claims and has already identified more than £100,000 in overpaid benefit this year.

Deputy leader Coun Lynda Barber said: "Benefit fraud is wrong, unfair to those in genuine need of help and will not be tolerated. We are working hard to ensure that those who need benefit payments receive our help."

The hard line stance on benefit cheats has seen an increase in the number of people being prosecuted or fined.

Since January, district council officers have investigated more than 100 allegations of benefit fraud and have raided more than 200 homes to check out information supplied on benefit claim forms.

Several people have been prosecuted. One woman conned the council into paying her mortgage by pretending she was a tenant in her own home. Her ex-husband was paying the mortgage.

She claimed she was not receiving enough housing benefit to meet the fictitious rent and made a successful application for £550 a month on the grounds of exceptional hardship.

The following year, the woman made another claim and a district council officer who visited her home became suspicious of the woman's lifestyle.

An investigation was launched and it revealed that in addition to posing as a tenant the woman had later sold the house and made £20,000 from the sale which she did not declare.

She was prosecuted and jailed for four months. The amount of overpaid benefit was more than £9,000.

If a case is considered to be less serious, the council will consider a penalty as an alternative to prosecution.

The penalty is fixed at 30 per cent of the amount of benefit that someone has claimed illegally. The overpaid benefit is also recovered.

Coun Barber is urging people living next door to benefit cheats to use the council's confidential hotline. "It is a 24-hour a day, confidential telephone hotline and anyone aware of people committing benefit fraud should call the telephone hotline in the strictest confidence," said Coun Barber.

Many benefit cheat allegations come from neighbours and anonymous calls to the hotline, which is (01249) 706 256.

The council is launching a new initiative to tighten the net even further. Officers will be cross referring housing benefit and council tax benefit data against information held by other agencies including private pension schemes, other local authorities, police and the Inland Revenue.

One man from Chippenham was receiving benefits because he was deemed unfit for work, but after a council investigation officers revealed that he was juggling seven jobs and running a business. The authority was continuing to pay his benefits and as a result he received more than £14,000.

The district council's investigators, many of whom are ex-police, ex-RAF and former benefit administrators, have stepped up their surveillance and investigation techniques.

Officers will be working closely with the Department for Work and Pension and will target specific employers to prevent bogus claims.

"The main aim is to prevent fraud entering the system and the council has just introduced vigorous verification processes and more home visits to check details of claims," said Coun Barber.