A council's bank account has been targeted twice by fraudsters since September. 

Someone tried to scam Oakham Town Council out of almost five thousand pounds with a fake cheque in September and the following month two direct debits to eBay commerce were set up for sums of around £300. 

Both attempts were spotted by the council's clerking team and the authority, which has an annual precept income of around £300,000, has not lost any money. 

The matter will be discussed at the finance meeting on Wednesday (November 13).  

The report said: "In the middle of September, a cheque was taken in by HSBC for funds of £4,900. This was immediately rejected by the bank as it was clear that the cheque was not from one of our cheque books and that it was therefore fake. The money was recredited to our account on the same day. This was also attempted by someone two years ago, with a similar outcome." 

On October 1 someone set up a direct debit to the town council bank account to eBay Commerce. 

The deputy clerk noticed this a week later, when two debits were taken for eBay Commerce. HSBC was contacted and stopped the direct debit and reported it as fraudulent activity. 

The bank account was suspended temporarily for a few days while new authorisations were arranged and meanwhile the amount removed from the account was restored. 

Police and council authorities were informed of the unsuccessful attempts to defraud Oakham Town Council. 

The authority was targeted by a fake cheque fraud two years ago. 

Town clerk Christopher Evans said he had received correspondence from Action Fraud had not been told who had committed the crimes. 

He said the direct debits had been set up by a person in London and the cheque had been deposited in one of the deposit boxes available in high street bank branches.  

He said: "As soon as we saw the direct debits, the clerk and I went into the bank and closed the account to make sure that everything was safe. It has now been reopened with new log in details. 

"We are obviously now tightening things and I know that every pound and shilling is where it should be. 

"As a town clerk I was reluctant to put this in the council minutes, but we are a public body and people need to know that this has happened." 

The authority has been advised not to put any signed minutes into the public domain, so that signatures cannot be copied. A new account with a different bank will also be set up. 

Last year the council called in an external advisor to look at its finance procedures after some petty cash was unaccounted for, and it was found there were weaknesses. The clerk left and Christopher Evans started in post in August last year.