THE latest technology is being used in a groundbreaking scheme to catch out council tax fraudsters.

Burnley Council is to investigate the 15,000 people in the borough who claim a 25 per cent discount on their council tax for living on their own.

Council bosses say the majority of people claim the discount genuinely, but that if just one per cent were dishonest that would cost the local authority £37,000.

Burnley Council will be one of the first in the country to take part in the scheme.

A new computer system will be used to search a wide range of data held about properties from third parties to see if more than one person is listed for an address.

Bosses said they had never been able to search on such a scale before.

Anyone who is claiming the 25 per cent discount incorrectly is being urged to come forward by January 19 or face being taken to court. Nick Aves, the council's director of resources, said: "People who are genuinely claiming this discount have nothing to fear - we want them to continue receiving the discount to which they are entitled.

"However, we take a zero tolerance approach to fraud - all fraud - and we're very pleased that we can carry out this major council tax anti-fraud initiative. It is vitally important that we get all the money in from council tax to pay for local services such as street cleaning, leisure centres, social services and education.

"Those incorrectly claiming the 25 per cent single person discount cause others to pay more."