Meet the Team
The Managers
Scott Warner
Counter Fraud Manager
Scott has been working in the local government counter fraud arena since 1991. An accredited Counter Fraud Manager specialising in covert surveillance, he has trained international police forces in surveillance techniques. Scott took on his current role in 2014 and under his leadership, Oxford Investigation Service has prevented fraud losses and generated revenue of over £26.5 million for Oxford City Council and over £14 million for partner organisations.
Scott successfully commercialised the work of the team with the formation of the Oxford Investigation Service in 2015. Developing the service and growing the client portfolio since inception, Scott has embedded a high level of business acumen into the team. All team members share the ongoing desire to ensure the Oxford Investigation Service retains its place as a centre of excellence in countering fraud.
Robert Ducker
Senior Investigation Officer
Rob joined Oxford City Council as a Senior Investigation Officer in Jan 16 having previously retired from Thames Valley Police after 25 years. Whilst in the police he managed a team of detectives dealing with highly sensitive intelligence and giving advice to senior detectives around covert tactics and deployment. He spent the majority of his Police career on the Criminal Investigation Department and has dealt with cases such as Murder, Rape, Serious Assaults, Firearm Incidents and Terrorist related enquiries. Since joining the council he has managed a team of investigators and intelligence officers dealing with reactive and proactive investigations. Rob has been the chair of the Thames Valley Tenancy Fraud Forum since Jan 16 and he also sits on the National Executive Board of the Tenancy Fraud Forum
Gareth Luscombe
Senior Investigation Officer
Gareth joined the Oxford Investigation Service in February 2018. Prior to this he had 8 years’ experience as a police officer and worked in a local CID team of detectives. In this time he gained a Policing Diploma. Gareth has extensive investigative experience, latterly in complex cases with a particular focus on robberies, burglaries, sexual assaults and frauds.
Gareth jointly provides fraud investigation services to a partner organisation and is involved in the delivery of Fraud Awareness, Conflict Management and Lone Worker training sessions.
Gareth has successfully project managed many exercises including the team’s Annual Fraud Conference and Empty property Reviews.
Dan Barker
Data Manager
Dan has worked as a local authority investigator since 2008. He spent the first six years investigating environmental crime and anti-social behaviour and moved to work in the fraud fraud team in 2014. Dan is currently leading on the use of a data warehouse and data-matching service to detect housing and Council Tax discount fraud, where significant savings are being made. He is passionate about making the best use of technology and data in the fight against fraud.
The Investigation Officers
Dawn Burford
Dawn has been with us since August 2019, and has joined from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) where she was as an investigator. Dawn transferred to DWP from a Local Authority as part of the Single Fraud Service Project in 2015.
She has been working as an investigator within Local Authorities and the DWP (and its previous incarnations) since 1992, the majority of that time focussing on benefit fraud.
Dawn has a particular interest in Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act investigations and Procurement Fraud.
Chris Morbey
Chris joined Oxford City Council as an Investigation Officer in May 2019.
Chris has worked as an investigator since 2000, previously working for Ealing Council and the DWP. Most of his work has involved investigating benefit fraud and he has investigated some complex and interesting cases. One of these cases resulted in an appearance on the BBC 1 programme Saints and Scroungers.
Chris also has experience conducting covert surveillance as he was on the surveillance team at the DWP for 2 years.
Emma Kenny
Emma joined Oxford Investigation Service in March 2022.
Prior to this she had 13 years’ experience as a police officer and has wide ranging investigative experience; most recently in offender management. She holds NVQ Levels 3&4 in Policing and is ACPO Tier 2 interview trained. Emma also has a BA Hons in Criminology.
Emma is undertaking a Level 4 Higher Intelligence Apprenticeship.
Richard Farrow
Richard joined the team in February 2020 and had previously been employed as an Investigator with Local Authorities since 2010.
Whilst working for local councils he mainly concentrated on benefit fraud and developed an excellent joint working relationship with the DWP and Police.
Richard has extensive experience of investigative methods and practices and obtained several qualifications such as accredited Counter Fraud Manager (PINS), Counter Fraud Specialist (PINS) and Counter Fraud Technician in Housing Fraud (CIPFA).
He currently jointly provides fraud investigation services to several partner local authorities and Housing Associations and also delivers Fraud Awareness training.
Lisa Hill
Lisa joined Oxford City Council in 2023.
Prior to this Lisa worked as a police officer with Thames Valley Police for 13 years & has a diploma in policing. In this time Lisa worked in a variety of departments including a local CID team & Priority crime teams.
Lisa has extensive experience in investigations, particularly fraud, burglaries & robberies.
The Intelligence Officers
Emily Jones
Emily moved in to an Intelligence role with Oxford Investigation Service in March 2022.
She has 15 years banking experience and has extensive experience in dealing with fraud linked to the banking sector, including money laundering cases and daily counter fraud attempts. Emily’s most recent role within Banking was as a ‘Premier Relationship Manager’ where she managed a portfolio of high value clients.
Emily is undertaking a Level 4 Higher Intelligence Apprenticeship.
Officer ‘N’
N started work with Oxford City Council in 2016 after completing a Diploma at Law School. With an array of academic qualifications and previous experience of working overseas on human rights and educational programmes, N is an asset to the intelligence capability of the team.
Since joining the team, N has qualified as an Accredited Counter-Fraud Technician and is an expert in open source investigation techniques.
Les Mara
Les has joined the team as an Intelligence Officer, having spent the last 15 months engaged in Covid Grant related fraud prevention, detection and analytics.
By way of further background, Les has more than 30 years of very broad and extensive private sector commercial and business management expertise and is an advocate in the use of data and data analytics to improve fraud prevention and detection efficiency & effectiveness.