Scammers tricked a Gloucestershire County Council staff member into transferring them nearly £20,000 by posing as their boss using a fake email address.

Only about half of the money was recovered from the 2016 email scam, which was brought to light by a Freedom of Information request made by the SNJ.

The member of staff was duped into sending £18,980.54 after they received an email from what appeared to be the council’s chief executive - its most senior bureaucrat - asking for an urgent payment to be made to a bank account in May 2016.

It was in fact a scam, and the Conservative-run council only recovered £9160.38 of public money.

A Gloucestershire school maintained by the council has also fallen prey to email scammers, though how much was taken is not yet known as the case is still under investigation, our FoI has revealed.

Fraudsters had intercepted the email account of a supplier and then told the school their bank details had changed.

Councillors have not been told about either case, according to Gloucestershire Liberal Democrats.

"Despite this occurring two years ago, this is the first that I have heard about it," their leader on the council, cllr Paul Hodgkinson, told the SNJ.

“The only way for a council to ensure that it does not repeat its mistakes is to be open and transparent when such errors of judgement are made, and for the Conservative administration to hide this from councillors is indicative of a culture of secrecy, which is particularly disturbing."

In response, the council's deputy leader, cllr Ray Theodoulou, said: “Gloucestershire County Council has a strong track record of dealing with fraud – but with any large business there’s always a risk of it.

"The council has a separate audit and governance committee specifically charged with checking procedures are right – and we have made sure it is chaired by an opposition councillor."

The SNJ made the FoI when last month it was revealed that Cotswold District Council had been defrauded £50,000.