School admission fraud no problem

OUT of more than 6,000 school admission application forms dealt with by Oldham Council every year, only a handful are fraudulent.

The number stabnds in stark contrast to Havering Council in East London, where close to 10 per cent of forms have to be withdrawn.

Havering Council was the subject of a “Panorama” investigation, screened last night, into a campaign to put a stop to this kind of fraud. Out of 100 randomly-selected forms, a quarter raised suspicions and nine were considered deemed fraudulent.

Schools admission fraud is not considered to be a problem in Oldham: “We have a stringent checking procedure and details on the forms are cross-matched against other information,” said a spokesman.

“If a form is found to be fraudulent, the application is simply withdrawn. Admissions law states that we don’t prosecute, but the applicant is back to square one and will have to start the whole procedure again from the back of the queue.”