Council officers at a West London council mistakenly used the council credit card to make personal purchases for a haircut, podcast subscriptions and greeting cards.
All councils publish larger payments either over £250 or £500 – but if you want to see what the council spends under those amounts on, you must submit a Freedom of Information request. The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) requested all payments under £250 between April 2025 and March 2026.
The information provided returned a number of “errors” – code for council staff accidentally using council card for personal purchases. According to the council, this is often through an autofill function with the money paid back each time.
On one occasion, a council officer “inadvertently” used the council card to pay £90 for their haircut. The council said: “At the time, both cards were very similar in appearance and colour, and they mistakenly selected the wrong card when making the payment. The cardholder has repaid the £90.00 to the Council.”
On another occasion, £55.13 was paid to Sam Harris Media LLC – the corporate entity that processes payments for Sam Harris platforms like the Making Sense podcast and the Waking Up app. Separately, £10.28 was spent at Thankbox – a service that provides greeting cards, and £44 was spent on Fantasy Football Fix.
Hounslow Council said: “These transactions occurred when council card details were inadvertently selected through an autofill function during personal purchases. The cardholder notified the council, the transactions were identified as personal expenditure and the amounts were recovered through salary deductions.”
On a number of transactions for Netflix and Amazon, amounting to £375.43, there is no receipt provided to evidence the purchases. When questioned, the council said: “Council credit cards are linked to specific service budgets.
“Transactions are reviewed by budget holders as part of ongoing budget monitoring, and managers are responsible for ensuring expenditure is legitimate council business. Where a receipt is unavailable, alternative checks are undertaken through financial monitoring and service records.”
Councillor Jack Emsley, Leader of the Opposition, has urged the council to urgently review it’s payment processes. He told the LDRS: “I am glad that this money has now been repaid, but expenses mistakes like this should never have happened in the first place.
“These errors will damage trust residents have in the local authority, particularly as they come at a time of cuts to local budgets. The council must now urgently review its processes to ensure these mistakes cannot happen in future.”
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Cllr Emsley also accused the local authority of ‘double standards’ as the LDRS revealed through an FOI that the council is paying itself for fines incurred by its own staff.
A spokesperson for Hounslow Council said: “The council takes the stewardship of public money very seriously and has clear controls in place governing the use of corporate payment cards. All transactions are reviewed and charged against service budgets, with budget holders responsible for ensuring expenditure is appropriate and in line with council policies.
“The transactions identified through the FOI request cover a wide range of council services, including support for children in care, children with disabilities, care leavers and adult learners.
“In a small number of cases, personal purchases were inadvertently made using council card details. These were identified, declared and reimbursed to the council.
“Where receipts are unavailable, expenditure is reviewed through the council’s financial procedures, including budget monitoring and managerial oversight, and alternative evidence is requested and scrutinised to ensure spending is legitimate and related to council services.”