POLICE have been called in to investigate cash discrepancies at Keighley Council's civic centre.

The authority asked for the probe after discovering reports of missing takings and incomplete till readings.

Sergeant Diane Collins, of Keighley Police, said: "Police at Keighley can confirm they have received a complaint of theft.

"Two men, aged 24 and 37 have been spoken to and enquiries are continuing."

The force would not release details of the amounts of cash involved and no-one from the Keighley Town Council office would comment on the investigation.

However, minutes from a January 27 meeting of the Keighley Town Council civic centre committee mention "four days takings down" and referring the matter to an "external contractor".

Keighley Civic Centre is home to the Police and Forensic Science Museum, a cafe and bar.

The Council is already the subject of a separate investigation, which is being carried out by West Yorkshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit.

This was prompted by Keighley MP Kris Hopkins (Con) who wrote to police after external auditors last year identified multiple failings in the Council's finance and governance.

Ingrow resident Elizabeth Mitchell, of parishioners campaign group Cavetown Council, said the latest probe was a symptom of a "dysfunctional" organisation.

She highlighted the findings of an internal audit of the Council in November, which warned of lack of authorisation of financial transactions and inadequate audit trails.

The same audit report also identified weaknesses in the way cash income was handled at the civic centre.

It said: "We noted takings were not being stored separately for each day in the safe. As a result, any discrepancies cannot be attributed to a particular day.

"Daily cashing up sheets were not being used. Therefore there are currently no records of differences to the till readings or the action taken to investigate those differences.

"Cashing up is not taking place on a daily basis or after each event in the bar."

The report criticises procedures around the use of the two safes in the civic centre, citing inadequate records of the contents of the catering safe.

"This means it is not clear what should be in the catering safe at any given time. Reconciliations are therefore more difficult to complete," it said.

Responding to the concerns raised by Mrs Mitchell, Keighley town clerk Tom Ferry said access to the Council safe was restricted.

He added: "A working group including myself and the responsible have been compiling new procedures for dealing with cash, z reads z reads, banking and much more, this is still in progress.

"Procedures are now in place for cashing up to prevent any lapse of time for cash discrepancies to go unnoticed."