Four A4e workers forged paperwork to make fraudulent claims against a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) welfare-to-work scheme, a jury has ruled.

Ines Cano-Uribe, aged 38, of Madrid, Spain, Matthew Hannigan-Train, 30, of Bristol, and Hayley Wilson, 27, of Milton Keynes, were yesterday found guilty of conspiring to make false instruments on the Inspire to Aspire contract to cover up fraudulent claims.

Cano-Uribe was also found guilty with Zabar Khalil, 35, of Slough, of a separate count of forgery.

A further six defendants had already pleaded guilty before the 13-week Reading Crown Court trial to 48 counts of forgery and related conspiracy offences.

They were Dean Lloyd, 38, of Milton Keynes — 13 counts of forgery, Julie Grimes, 52, of Laleham, Surrey — nine counts of forgery; Aditi Singh, 31, of Slough — three counts of fraud and forgery, Bindiya Dholiwar, 28, of Slough — seven counts of forgery, Nikki Foster, 31, of Wokingham – eight counts of fraud and one conspiracy, and Charles McDonald, 44, of Egham, Surrey — six counts of fraud and one of conspiracy.

Lisa Rose, specialist fraud prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This scheme involved blatant deception on behalf of the defendants. Instead of helping people back into work, the defendants created false clients and false paper trails for future audits.

“This criminal abuse of their position and responsibility was simply to boost the company’s performance and increase the amount of money it received.

“The defendants claimed A4e had helped find jobs for people who were in fact already employed, people who had never come to A4e for help, and even for some A4e colleagues who had not even used the scheme to join the company.

“For an organisation with such aspirational aims and goals, it is very disappointing that the defendants behaved so dishonestly. Instead of spending time helping those who genuinely needed to find work these defendants were tirelessly covering their tracks, not to mention causing considerable losses to the public purse.”

Between 2008 and 2011, Wilson, Lloyd, Grimes, Singh, Dholiwar, Foster and McDonald worked as A4e recruiters at branches throughout the Thames Valley, together with account manager Cano-Uribe, deputy business manager Hannigan-Train and contract administrator Khalil.

Thames Valley Police said that over this period, the recruiters claimed financial rewards by fraudulently saying they had found work for people, many of whom either did not exist or had not found work. They then forged documentation to support these false claims.

Andrew Dutton, A4e chief executive, said: “A4e co-operated fully with the police enquiry, after our own internal investigation first brought these alleged incidents to light. Since these alleged events took place, we have augmented our controls and processes to seek to ensure that nothing like this could ever happen again.

“Furthermore, rigorous audits undertaken by the Department for Work and Pensions [DWP] and the Skills Funding Agency have concluded that there is no evidence of fraud on any of the contracts that we hold with them.

“A4e has, of course, committed to paying back in full the total value of alleged unsubstantiated claims that were made to the DWP.”

The fraudulent claims were discovered following a whistleblower report that led to a DWP and Thames Valley Police investigation into the ‘Inspire to Aspire’ Lone Parent mentoring programme, which was funded by the European Social Fund (ESF). The programme ended in July 2011.

In some cases, said police, the offenders created files for people who did not exist and included fabricated contact details and details about false training sessions.

In others, claims were made for people who had attended A4e for help, but had not yet found employment. The offenders made claims to say these people had been helped into work by A4e and so rewards were claimed.

Although the money was not received directly by the offenders, many of them were given bonuses for each person they helped into work and met targets set by their managers.

When the DWP audited the contract and asked to see 21 files in March 2011, Cano-Uribe, Hannigan-Train and Wilson were all involved in making the files appear to be in order, including fraudulent ones.

The fraud came to light when documentation completed and purporting to be signed by candidates and employers to show successful job outcomes, was found to have been produced and signed by staff themselves.

DI Gavin Tyrrell, from the Thames Valley Police Economic Crime Unit, said: “This has been a long and highly complex investigation and so we are pleased that it has resulted in a positive outcome here at court.

“Together, these ten people acted dishonestly to abuse a scheme which was designed to help those who had been out of work for long periods and were trying to find jobs in what was a very difficult employment climate. Financial rewards had been introduced in order to help that process and these defendants took advantage of that for their own personal gain.

“The money they fraudulently claimed came from the taxpayer and just over £1.3m was paid to A4e between 2008 and 2010 for their implementation of this contract.

“I want to thank the jury who have deliberated for over 55 hours for their patience in carefully listening to all the facts, in what has been a complicated and difficult case.”

The defendants are due to be sentenced on March 30 at Reading Crown Court.

Sarah Hawkins, 32, of Bagshot, Surrey, Serge Wyett, of Richmond, and Yasmin Ahmed, both 40, of Southend on Sea, faced similar charges, but were cleared of all counts.

A4e chief executive Andrew Dutton has revealed that none of the staff who ripped off a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) welfare-to-work scheme were still working for him.

Ines Cano-Uribe, aged 38, of Madrid, Matthew Hannigan-Train, 30, of Bristol, and Hayley Wilson, 27, of Milton Keynes, were found guilty of conspiring to make false instruments on the Inspire to Aspire contract to cover up fraudulent claims.

Cano-Uribe was also found guilty, with Zabar Khalil, 35, of Slough, of a separate count of forgery. A further six defendants had already pleaded guilty before the 13-week Reading Crown Court trial, which ended on January 14, to 48 counts of forgery and related conspiracy offences.

They were Dean Lloyd, 38, of Milton Keynes — 13 counts of forgery, Julie Grimes, 52, of Laleham, Surrey — nine counts of forgery; Aditi Singh, 31, of Slough — three counts of fraud and forgery, Bindiya Dholiwar, 28, of Slough — seven counts of forgery, Nikki Foster, 31, of Wokingham – eight counts of fraud and one conspiracy, and Charles McDonald, 44, of Egham — six counts of fraud and one of conspiracy.

Andrew Dutton, A4e Group chief executive, said: “We are obviously very disappointed and sorry a number of people who worked on this contract behaved so dishonestly.” He added: “None of the people who were convicted remain in our organisation.”

Between 2008 and 2011, Wilson, Lloyd, Grimes, Singh, Dholiwar, Foster and McDonald worked as A4e recruiters in the Thames Valley, together with account manager Cano-Uribe, deputy business manager Hannigan-Train and contract administrator Khalil. Thames Valley Police said the recruiters claimed they had found work for people, many of whom either did not exist or had not found work, to fraudulently receive bonuses. They then forged documentation to support false claims. When the DWP asked to see files in March 2011, Cano-Uribe, Hannigan-Train and Wilson were involved in making the files appear to be in order, including fraudulent ones.

It came to light when documentation completed, and purporting to be signed by candidates and employers to show successful job outcomes, was found to have been produced and signed by staff themselves.

Mr Dutton said A4e would pay back all the money that had been fraudulently claimed, adding that DWP and Skills Funding Agency audits found no evidence of fraud in current A4e contracts.

The defendants are due to be sentenced on March 30 at Reading Crown Court.

Sarah Hawkins, 32, of Bagshot, Serge Wyett, of Richmond, and Yasmin Ahmed, both 40, of Southend on Sea, faced similar charges, but were cleared of all counts.

Two thirds of FE and skills providers failed to deliver their final 2013/14 Adult Skills Budget (ASB) allocation by a total of £111.8m, FE Week can reveal.

Skills Funding Agency (SFA) allocations data shows that 888 colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs) were earmarked a total of £2,210.7m ASB cash in June.

But FE Week research comparing these allocations with final funding figures for last academic year showed that while 217 providers got a total of £20.6m more than they had been allocated, and 79 met their allocation figure, 592 were paid a total of £111.8m less than their combined allocation figure.

And with SFA deputy director for funding systems Una Bennett having warned of incorrect claims by providers (see front), it is likely that the final overall figure could yet fall as funding is clawed back — meaning a potential rise in the number of providers paid less than their allocation.

Julian Gravatt, assistant chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “There are some big variances in the numbers and some big well-known companies have fallen short in their plans just as some colleges have. At the same time, underspends on apprenticeships need to be looked at alongside overspends on other education and training for adults.

“Things were complicated in 2013/2014 because there was a new SFA formula [funding calculation] introduced, the start of 24+ advanced learning loans, funding cuts averaging 15 per cent and the IT systems didn’t work properly.”

With the government viewing delivery of apprenticeships as a priority, it is likely that providers paid more than their allocations delivered more numbers than expected on the programme.

And when looking at SFA data showing just final funding levels versus the value of delivery per provider, those who did more training than they were funded for were likely to be running more non-apprenticeship — or non-priority — programmes than they had been allocated for.

Indeed, while the combined 2013/14 ASB final funding for colleges and ILPs was £2,164.8m, they actually delivered £2,230.6m-worth of training. It meant that providers delivered £65.7m-worth of unfunded training. It was a similar story in 2012/13 when there was £61.8m-worth of training delivered, but not paid for.

But in 2011/12, when the SFA allowed colleges to keep funding for which there had been no delivery, there was £91m of SFA cash given out despite no education or training — although the SFA reduced some allocations the following year to make up for the overpayment.

Stewart Segal, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive, said: “The final figures for [2013/14] delivery show how complex the contract management system is. Around £65m of delivery was not funded even though some of this provision was priority delivery, such as programmes for the unemployed or English and maths.

“If we compare actual delivery of the ASB to budget [2013/2014 funding up to June last year], then a number of providers did not deliver their full contract value. During the year, many of these providers had increases in budgets, so they may well have delivered more than their original budgets, but did not reach their new contract limit.

“The frequent changes to budgets and the timing of the increases means that it is very difficult for providers to make the investment in expanding provision because of the time lag from recruiting new employers and learners.”

An SFA spokesperson said: “Applying our published performance management policy has meant that we have been able to fully fund all high-quality adult apprenticeship delivery including reported delivery above maximum contract values; discretionary learner support and 24+ advanced learning loans bursaries to support learners facing financial hardship to take part in learning; and, Esol (English for Speakers of Other Languages) protection (for colleges).

“Colleges and training organisations only retain funding for what they deliver and those that over-delivered on their other ASB did so at their own risk and the Performance Management Rules 2013 to 2014 clearly stated there would be no automatic payment for delivery above maximum contract values.”

Sources: SFA 2013/14 final allocations and SFA final funding year values

Learndirect records biggest ASB shortfall

Learndirect had the biggest shortfall in delivery of ASB provision for which it had been allocated SFA cash among all providers.

The ILP was given £6.4m less funding than it had been finally allocated for 2013/14 in June, when it was earmarked £129.3m by the SFA.

The two other ILPs with the greatest shortfalls were London-based Babcock Training Limited (£4m) and Sussex-based HIT Training (£3.2m).

Adrian Beddow, communications manager at Learndirect, said: “Like many providers we were tasked with supporting the government priority of apprenticeships. As a result, in 2013/2014, we saw more of our funding moving from adult skills into apprenticeships, at the start of the funding year as well as in-year.

“The changes in-year meant we over-supplied on our ASB because the demand was there and we had already contracted out our funding allocation to our partners. However, in our apprenticeships delivery, the in-year changes proved challenging given the timeframes we were working with. This, together with the introduction of 24+ advanced learning loans which decreased the size of our target audience for much of the year, meant we fell short of our final allocation.”

Jill Whittaker (pictured), managing director of HIT Training, which was allocated £26.2m and given £23m, said: “In 2013/2014, and as a result of increased demand for its training provision, HIT Training exceeded the original [ASB] contract [allocation], dated July 2, 2013, by £6.2m.

“The second version of the contract, dated January 8, 2014, was exceeded by £1.7m.

“Further variations to contract, including increases in apprenticeship and traineeship allocations, were received in March 2014 and June 2014. Apprenticeship and traineeship demand cannot be turned on at short notice. For many years AELP has emphasised the role of training organisations in raising awareness of apprenticeship programmes — this takes time. While we made our best efforts to stimulate additional demand, we were unable to achieve the entire contract value.”

Babcock Training Limited declined to comment. It had been allocated £30.5m and given £26.5m.

Apprentice subcontracting behind lack of delivery

 

The three colleges with the greatest delivery shortfalls on their 2013/14 ASB allocations missed out on a total of £10.2m SFA cash.

Newcastle College Group (NCG) failed to deliver £4.3m, Birmingham Metropolitan College (BMet) £3.5m, and Hull College £2.4m.

Chris Payne, group director of planning and performance at NCG, which was given £31.7m by the SFA having been allocated £36m, said: “Much of this shortfall was where NCG was awarded additional apprenticeship contract value bid for in-year for delivery via subcontractors.

“However, we could not find sufficient numbers of contractors who would have been able to deliver training of the right quality.

“It was not included in our budgets at the start of the year, so there is a very limited impact on last year’s budget and there is no impact on long-term allocations this year.

“In some areas, such as discretionary learner support, we invested an extra £1m which the SFA has funded and which balances out some of the under-spend on apprenticeships.”

A spokesperson for BMet, which was given £21.3m having been allocated £24.8m, said: “The changed funding position for BMet’s ASB is the result of consolidation following the merger between Stourbridge College and BMet in 2013.

“Our financial position and balance sheet remain strong and we have recently been graded outstanding for financial health by the SFA. The college offers a broad range of adult provision, with a strong focus on employability skills.”

A spokesperson for Hull College, given £16.7m having been allocated £19.1m, said: “The shortfall in adult funding delivery in 2013/2014 is solely attributable to the group’s strategic plan in-year to reduce the volume of subcontractors delivering adult apprenticeships.”

A former London college vice-principal described by ex-colleagues as “a woman of extraordinary energy and judgement” has died, aged 68.

Tributes poured in from ex-colleagues of Ruth Nixon (pictured), who was assistant principal and vice-principal of Lambeth College between 1994 and 2010.

She died peacefully following a sudden illness on Friday, January 2.

In a joint statement, Adrian Perry, the college’s principal from 1992 to 2002, and Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly, college chair of governors from 1992 to 2013, said: “Ruth Nixon was a woman of extraordinary energy and judgement.

“She came to Lambeth College at its establishment from South London College; as the college became organised on a unified basis, she took increasingly senior roles, with a particular emphasis on curriculum and quality, the part of the college that actually affected students, who remained at the top of her priorities.

“As successively assistant principal and vice principal, she established robust systems that radically raised pass rates and reduced drop-out. Because of her work, many more students gained qualification and moved into employment and higher education.

“Ruth was self-effacing, working in the background to get the best outcomes, happy for others to make the speeches and take the credit.”

Mrs Nixon, who lived in Blackheath, London, and is survived by her husband and two sons, first entered the FE workforce teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) at Cheetham FE Centre, Manchester, from 1971 to 1972. She taught ESL and literacy at Bradford College, Manchester University, Sheppey School, in Kent, and South East London Technical College (SELTEC) over the next 15 years.

Mrs Nixon was appointed deputy head of humanities in 1987 at South London College, which merged with Vauxhall College and Brixton College of Further Education to form Lambeth College five years later.

Richard Chambers, who was the college’s principal from 2005 to 2011, said she was an “unsung hero”.

“I worked with Ruth at Lambeth College for the last five years before she retired and before this at South East London College ,” he said.

“She was a central part of a hugely pioneering bunch of colleagues leading curriculum reform to make colleges more suitable places for people with modest educational achievements from their schooling days.

“By the time I caught up with her again at Lambeth she had, through her wisdom, vast depth of expertise and an unparalleled work ethic, shaped and maintained a college course offer which was what local people needed and wanted.

“Ruth’s unassuming quiet nature was the mark of a selflessness which made her such a great public servant and educationalist.

“I extend my deepest sympathies to all of her family.”

Mark Silverman, the current Lambeth College principal, said: “Although Ruth and I didn’t work together at Lambeth, it’s clear from the way that our staff have reacted to her passing that Ruth was a woman of tremendous passion and determination who put learners at the heart of the college and was a great encourager and enabler of staff.

“Ruth will be sadly missed by many of our staff who have very fond memories of her. Our thoughts are with her family and close friends at this time”.