NI: Spying legislation used to identify welfare and insurance fraud
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Spying legislation designed to tackle terrorism has been used hundreds of times to identify welfare and insurance fraud in Northern Ireland over the past five years, The Irish News reports.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) was used 591 times by the Department for Communities and 132 times by the Department for Infrastructure since April 2012.
A spokesperson for the Department for Infrastructure told The Irish News that the Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) uses RIPA to identify personal injury compensation fraud and other offences
A spokesperson for the Department of Communities told BBC News: “The powers within the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 are used for the purposes of preventing and detecting crime and the investigation and prosecution of benefit fraud cases.
“The use of any investigatory powers is strictly controlled and applied proportionately, only where necessary and within the parameters set down in law.”
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