Swansea City Council taxpayers have been landed with a £20,000 bill after an official investigation into alleged fraud among councillors. A former Dunvant community councillor, Lis Davies, alleged up to £20,000 had been claimed fraudulently in expenses by 15 Swansea councillors, and reported the matter to the police and the council's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers. The auditor's report identified potentially-unlawful claims of £129.72, which it recommended should be repaid to the council. The auditor also made a number of recommendations to the council to improve its systems and processes regarding members' expenses. Leader of the council, Chris Holley, told The MJ there had been an ongoing and open review of expenses over the last two years. He welcomed the Freedom of Information Act, but was worried about the level someone could go with ‘malicious and unlawful' allegations. ‘We now have this bill for a sum of money which could have been used on frontline services. The system is being abused,' he said. ‘There must be a limit to what councils have to pay because there is no reason to say this allegation won't be made again. Will we have to pay £20,000 again?'