Investigation Officer Internal Applicants Only

***Internal Applicants Only***

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO3- PO

Contract Type: Full time Permanent (Mon-Fri and occasional weekends if required)

Application Deadline: 04/03/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): 25/03/2026

Reference: 2022

About Us:

Bursting with culture energy and opportunity the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused insight-led digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of Londons Good Work Standardemployers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions workplace well-being skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

As an Investigation Officer youll play a key role in protecting the Council and its partners by preventing detecting and investigating fraud corruption and irregularity across areas such as housing council tax procurement employees/contractors and wider corporate services. You will plan and deliver civil and criminal investigationsconducting interviews (including under caution) analysing data (e.g. National Fraud Initiative matches) preparing highquality case files and reports and working closely with police legal teams and external agencies to secure appropriate sanctions and recover losses.

Alongside casework youll help embed a strong antifraud culture by advising services running awareness/training and improving systems policies and proceduresoften using datamatching and analytics to drive proactive prevention. The role is graded PO3/PO4 (careergraded) based at Fellowship Square and may involve occasional outofhours work and site visits. Waltham Forest council operates a hybrid working model (with a minimum of 2 working days in the office) with a greater balance between home based and office working subject to role requirements.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead civil and criminal investigations across priority fraud risks (housing tenancy/RTB/homelessness council tax procurement employees/contractors schools beneficiaries) including proactive and preventative work.
• Own the full case lifecycle: gather intelligence and lawful evidence (including surveillance where legislation permits) conduct interviews including under caution maintain secure highquality case files/exhibits and act as OIC/IO/DO as required.
• Use data and analytics to detect and deter fraud (e.g. manage NFI matches) maximising cashable recoveries and prevented losses.
• Produce clear endofinvestigation reports with sanction/prosecution/civilrecovery recommendations; present cases at disciplinaries tribunals and in County/Magistrates/Crown Courts; keep stakeholders updated and complete closure documentation.
• Contribute to antifraud planning and delivery: identify key fraud risks with services deliver projects to deadline and monitor/report progress against objectives and KPIs.
• Build an antifraud culture by providing specialist advice delivering fraudawareness training and developing/maintaining policies procedures and standards.
• Work in partnership with Internal Audit police legal teams and external agencies; coordinate joint investigations and handle DPA information requests appropriately.
• Ensure legal and professional compliance at all times (e.g. PACE POCA data protection and council financial/contract rules); manage workload to meet deadlines while upholding confidentiality and quality standards.
• Work flexibly to service needs including occasional outofhours/site visits.

Qualifications and Requirements:

Youll bring proven experience in a counterfraud environment with the ability to lead complex localgovernment investigations manage a busy caseload to deadlines and present clear evidencebased findings in courts tribunals and disciplinary forums. Relevant professional counterfraud qualifications (e.g. ACFS/ACFTech/CIPFA investigative certificates) are expected alongside strong knowledge of PACE POCA data protection and publicsector governance risk and internal controls.

Youll be an excellent communicatorconfident with witnesses and suspects alikehighly numerate discreet and adept with casemanagement systems and Microsoft 365. Above all youll be motivated by public service partnership working and measurable outcomes: deterring fraud securing recoveries and improving systems so resources reach residents who need them most.

Terms and conditions:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the Apply button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore if you are interested please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair appropriate accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2 internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore wherever possible we will consider working arrangements that suit an individuals personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council please visit Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process please contact Jamie Branch Internal Audit and Anti-Fraud Manager at @

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@.

The Councils preference is for online application. However if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application please email recruitment@ so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.