People have been claiming they are Greggs the bakers and Marston's the brewers to fraudulently claim coronavirus grants, Swansea councillors were told.

Fraud investigator Jeff Fish said other people had pretended they were Tesco, Boots and Lloyds when submitting applications for emergency business grants.

Councils everywhere have been administering certain Government grant and loan schemes set up in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.

Swansea Council's Mr Fish said: "Because our systems are robust and effective we have not paid out on any of those."

Mr Fish also said fraudsters had contacted local authorities including Swansea saying they could provide personal protective equipment.

"We have had approaches from people in China saying they had everything we need," he said.

"We have not fallen victim to any of that."

Mr Fish added: "While the criminal element decided to take about three weeks off, that was about all it lasted at a local level.

"The police have never been so busy."

He said the council was helping police to investigate child sexual exploitation and cannabis factory reports.

Mr Fish said the cost of the UK Government's 53 new and existing mechanisms to support people and businesses during the coronavirus outbreak, including universal credit, were worth £540 billion as of last month.

"So only a small percentage of it needs to be fraud for the fraud losses to be huge," he said, speaking at an audit committee meeting.

He added that some of the council fraud team's more routine work, including employee surveillance, was on hold while interviewing under caution could not take place for now.

Referring to internal employee matters, such as potential abuse of travel claims and flexitime, Cllr Lesley Walton said staff had been under significant stress for a long time.

She said: "Whilst we don't allow them to be fraudulent in any of their claims, the last thing I want to do is to stop staff claiming what they're entitled to."

Mr Fish replied: "Yes, clearly councillor, we can't be seen to condone them - but yes, an understanding and appreciation of the circumstances will be built into our approach for the foreseeable future."