Staff at HM Revenue & Customs were investigated over £2.3m worth of fraud in the past year.

The sum is thought to constitute more than half of all fraud perpetrated by individuals from government departments, The Observer reported.

One member of staff signed off £100,000 worth of her own made-up expenses, while a clerk stole over £200,000 to pay for holidays, the paper said.

David Gauke, the Tory shadow exchequer secretary, said: 'These figures suggest an alarming increase in HMRC staff fraud. On top of failures in general performance and data protection in particular, this demonstrates yet further failure in HMRC's procedures. I will be writing to Stephen Timms to ask for further details and to ask what is being done to address the issue and how has it happened.'

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