£104,000 Of Public Funding Lost In Scam

More than £100,000 in Welsh public funding has been paid into a fraudulent bank account.

It's claimed to have happened over four months, at the end of 2013 into 2014.

The Public Accounts Committee has been told that the Assembly Commission - who's in charge of the National Assembly - fell victim to a huge scam.

In total, £104,000 was lost and it's been said it's "highly unlikely" the money can be retrieved.

South Wales and West AM Peter Black said it was a "one-off":

"The scam we fell for was part of a bigger scheme"

"Hopefully you'll be reassured that we have responded appropriately, that we have assurances that this is an isolated and we have made changes to our processes to make sure it doesn't happen again"

A police investigation is looking into how it happened and one person has been arrested.

The committee has been assured that there are "strengthened controls" in place.

Chief Exec and Clerk of the National Assembly for Wales Claire Clancy said the Wales Audit Office had to be satisfied that it couldn't happen in future:

"It was something that they paid particular attention to"

"They had to be completely satisfied that it was an isolated incident and that the changes that we made were satisfactory".

A spokesman for the Assembly declined to give out any more information about the account, or what the cash was going to be spent on.