A CRIME prevention body in Glasgow is facing questions over allegations that staff created bogus fixed penalty notices in a bid to meet targets.

Community Safety Glasgow (CSG) has confirmed that five community enforcement officers resigned after “discrepancies” were found in their work.

The officers have a “minimum performance standard” of issuing 300 penalty notices a year, but the public body strongly refuted any suggestion the controversy was linked to pressure to keep the numbers up.

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CSG, which is jointly-owned by the city council, is in charge of Glasgow’s CCTV network and plays a prominent role in combating anti-social behaviour. Its civilian patrol officers, equipped with body cameras and handheld digital devices, can issue £80 fines for offences such as litter dropping.

According to CSG’s latest accounts, 17,773 penalty notices were issued in 2015/16, and 20,467 were handed out in the previous twelve months.

However, an insider with knowledge of CSG approached this newspaper and cast doubt on the overall numbers.

The source said some enforcement officers, in the years leading up to and including 2015, had made up false ones and recorded the details into the system.

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The insider said: “To create a false document, you could simply choose a name from the phone book, or indeed a name and address chosen completely at random. The information would then be entered into the PDA [personal digital assistant], the ticket would be printed and simply destroyed by the officer.”

The individual added that such bad practices allowed an officer to “easily meet and exceed” the target of issuing two penalty notices a day, adding: “It was in every CEO’s [community enforcement officer] interest to meet that target, and if you couldn't spot and ticket two people for dropping litter that day then maybe it became tempting to make one up, to keep the pressure off yourself.”

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The Sunday Herald understands the alleged scam was uncovered by CSG during a routine audit of fixed penalty notices in 2015.

It emerged that, in relation to the five officers, the number of people who had not paid their fines was higher than average, fuelling suspicions that details on the notices were false.

After a disciplinary process was triggered, four staff quit ahead of a hearing, while the fifth employee resigned after a meeting was held.

A source close to CSG said the resignations occurred in 2015 and the system had since been overhauled.

Patrick Harvie, a Scottish Greens MSP in Glasgow, said: “I'm shocked that this situation is only coming to light now, so long after it was known to CSG. For people to have confidence in their use of these powers it's important that there's a culture of accountability.

“Beyond that I hope they reconsider the whole principle of setting targets for staff to meet. This isn't a call centre or a sales team – it's part of the justice system, and we need to know that the system is fair. If staff are under pressure to issue a particular number of fines, it's little wonder that some have been tempted to fiddle the figures, so there's a risk the same could happen again.”

Glasgow Tory MSP Annie Wells: "This is clearly unacceptable and re-enforces the perception that not enough is being done to tackle dog fouling in Glasgow. For years residents have complained about this problem, and all the while it seems that they have been lied to about what action was being taken to stop it.

“It’s not acceptable and there needs to be an audit of any future figures to ensure that they are accurate.”

A spokesperson for Community Safety Glasgow said: “In 2015, disciplinary action was taken against five Community Enforcement Officers (CEOs) after a routine audit revealed discrepancies in their work. This sparked an in-depth, root and branch internal investigation which led to disciplinary hearings.

“Four people resigned before their hearings began and the other person resigned midway through their meeting.

“Regular scrutiny, coupled with a new electronic system, guards against any further incidents of this type.”