For two years, East Anglia Bylines has led a dogged investigation into a shadowy fraud unit operating under the authority of a bankrupt Essex council. What began as a quiet line of inquiry into the financial collapse of Thurrock Council has since exposed a web of misrepresentation, blurred lines between civil and criminal authority and the quiet complicity of police forces and government departments.
At the centre of the scandal is the so-called National Investigation Service (NATIS), a fraud unit created by Thurrock Council. Originally part of a collaboration with Southend Council, Castle Point Council and South Essex Homes, NATIS evolved from a local partnership into what it publicly claimed was a national “law enforcement organisation” specialising in fraud against public funds.
But NATIS was no such thing.
A council in crisis
Thurrock Council was engulfed in financial scandal. Under its previous Conservative administration, between 2018 and 2022, it amassed over £1.3 billion in debt, hiding at least £500 million in losses from reckless investments. NATIS, meanwhile, stood idle as disaster unfolded in its own backyard – raising serious questions about its legitimacy and purpose.
Although marketed as an elite fraud team available to other councils, NATIS failed to investigate the financial meltdown occurring within the very council that employed it. Instead, the unit devoted resources to cases across the country, maintaining a carefully curated image as a trusted police-adjacent entity.
That image has since unravelled – thanks in no small part to this publication’s persistence.
Misusing the mantle of law enforcement
Our investigation began with Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and routine scrutiny of public records. What we uncovered was deeply troubling. NATIS had, for years, used a restricted police email domain (natis.police.uk), displayed police-style logos and branding, and issued warrant card-style IDs to council employees. Its website – until recently – showed uniformed officers and suggested formal ties to UK policing.
None of it was legitimate.
The domain itself, we learned through further FOIs, had been obtained after a request was made – apparently by a shared services unit for the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police forces. Yet no one would explain how a council department was allowed to operate under the cover of an official police URL. The College of Policing, which oversees the use of ‘police.uk’ domains, admitted it had issued the domain in error, believing NATIS to be a genuine police organisation.
That illusion crumbled when our FOIs reached the College and The Times began asking questions based on the responses to our now publicly-available FOIs. The College ordered NATIS to cease using the domain and almost overnight, their website was taken offline. When it re-emerged, it had been stripped of ‘police-like’ insignia, reassigned to a Thurrock Council domain and purged of misleading claims.
Blurred lines and silent complicity
The scale of the deception didn’t end with the domain. The minutes from a 2018 meeting showed Essex police were providing staff cover for Thurrock’s fraud unit after a vacancy emerged. Essex police now claim they had no formal arrangement, no contract and no Memorandum of Understanding in place. Yet the meeting record clearly states that Essex police were temporarily providing resilience, free of charge, to the Counter Fraud & Investigation Department (the NATIS predecessor).
Our FOIs to Essex police were met with stonewalling. Requests to the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire constabularies shared services team were refused on grounds ranging from national security to personal privacy. Other forces that had worked with NATIS refused to confirm even the extent of their cooperation.
So what began as a council-run fraud team evolved into a quasi-police entity, backed – tacitly or otherwise – by real police officers, government departments and procurement channels that to this day remain unexplained.
An illusion supported by government
Ironically, NATIS was accepted into the Government’s official Counter Fraud Function, whose members are expected to investigate public sector fraud “legally and ethically.” While it described itself as a “law enforcement organisation” working for the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (now the Department for Business and Trade) to investigate COVID fraud, no records could be produced showing how this contract was awarded.
Meanwhile, NATIS staff, many of them council employees, were dressing like police officers, issuing formal-looking IDs and – in violation of the Police Act 1996 – potentially impersonating officers of the law. Misleading emails and public-facing materials added to the deception.
All this took place under the noses of council executives, police partners and government officials. And none raised the alarm – until East Anglia Bylines began to ask uncomfortable questions.
Power held to account
This investigation is a clear example of why citizen journalism matters. NATIS didn’t shut down its website because of a government inquiry, or a council audit, or even a whistleblower. It did so because of a string of FOI requests, public scrutiny and a relentless pursuit of truth by our editorial team.
In response, the College of Policing took action. The government’s fraud directory was quietly updated. The false police-type branding was removed. And NATIS retreated back into what it always was: a local council department.
Yet critical questions remain unanswered. Who first proposed NATIS? Who authorised its misleading identity? Why did so many public bodies turn a blind eye to the impersonation of police officers?
East Anglia Bylines will continue to investigate.
Because when others look away, we look deeper. And when public trust is at stake, silence is not an option.
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