Kent County Council (KCC) lost nearly £600k to ‘fraud and error’ in the last six months - and came close to being conned out of £1.2m by a hacker.

The authority's general counsel, Ben Watts, warned of the “considerable and existential threat" this could be to the organisation if not managed properly.

In a report to KCC's governance and audit committee it was also revealed that an email hack of a senior officer saw an attempt to defraud KCC of £1.2m, which was prevented.

Of the £586k lost since April, £222,769 was due to a mandate fraud against KCC, which has since been recovered.

A Kent school was also hit by a £164,453 mandate fraud, which is under investigation.

Mandate fraud is when fraudsters use deception to alter bank details, sometimes posing as legitimate recipients of regular payments, and take the money intended for elsewhere.

KCC is in the process of recovering £172,860, lost due to the council overpaying a social care firm when they were no longer providing the service.

Another attempted hacking of a finance officer failed, but could have resulted in a school losing its monthly advance of more than £500,000.

Cloning of a KCC-issued purchase card also resulted in a loss of £1,028. A further £450 theft was attempted on the same card.

The council heard that fraud awareness and anti-fraud training sessions have been held with school governors and council staff at KCC.

Staff of district and borough councils in the county are also in regular contact and share information with KCC’s counter-fraud team.

Cllr Rosalind Binks (Con), chairwoman of the governance and audit committee, suggested such sessions may not be enough, however.

She said “Awareness sessions across the various areas were carried out, and yet in April to September we still had attempts being made, so sessions on their own may not be enough, and I think there has to be a continual reminder because these are big sums of money.”