Serco staff wrote fake invoices worth £500,000 a month

Serco staff cooked up fake invoices worth £500,000 a month at the height of an ill-fated attempt to defraud the taxpayer, it has been revealed.

The company had a contract with the Ministry of Justice to monitor electronically-tagged offenders, awarded in 2005.

This had a clause requiring it to pay back excess profits to the Government.

Fake invoices: Serco had a contract with the Ministry of Justice to monitor electronically-tagged offenders, awarded in 2005

But between August 2011 and January 2013 it tried to hide these takings by creating false charges worth nearly £15million. 

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said that for one period of six months ‘£500,000 per month’ was being falsely charged.

However the company was later investigated and agreed to pay a £23million out-of-court settlement. 

Details were revealed for the first time yesterday after reporting restrictions lifted. 

That followed the embarrassing collapse of the SFO’s prosecution of two former Serco executives.