Anthony Fraser
Woking resident who identified potential breaches of Public Works Loan Board lending rules and raised concerns with Section 151 Officer Leigh Clarke and external auditors BDO in September 2021 — nearly two years before the Section 114 notice. His warnings were ignored.
Key Actions
- Identified potential PWLB lending rule breaches using publicly available data
- Raised concerns with Section 151 Officer Leigh Clarke in September 2021
- Reported findings to external auditors BDO, who did not act effectively
- Warnings were ignored nearly two years before the council was declared effectively bankrupt
Details
Anthony Fraser is a Woking resident who used publicly available financial data to identify that the council may have breached Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) lending rules. He raised these concerns with Section 151 Officer Leigh Clarke and the council's external auditors BDO in September 2021.
Fraser's concerns centred on a £58 million PWLB loan that he believed may have breached the rules governing how councils can use PWLB borrowing. His analysis was based on publicly filed accounts and Companies House data — information that was available to both the council's officers and its auditors.
Despite Fraser raising the alarm nearly two years before the council's financial collapse became official, his concerns were not acted upon. Neither the Section 151 Officer nor the external auditors took effective action in response to his warnings.
Fraser's experience illustrates a recurring theme of the scandal: external voices raising legitimate concerns that were dismissed or ignored by the council's governance structures. His warnings were ultimately vindicated when the Section 114 notice was issued in June 2023.
Sources
- Commissioners' Publications— Woking Borough Council / Government Commissioners