An anti-fraud drive by public sector bodies in Scotland uncovered nearly £10million in scams and mistakes - and the total is expected to increase.

A total of £9.7m was found to have been paid out as a result of fraud, overpayment, or errors, said spending regulatory body Audit Scotland.

This included 186 pensions being paid where someone was dead, and more than 1500 housing benefit cases involving public sector pensioners.

The drive also resulted in 969 "blue badge" disabled parking permits being cancelled when investigators found the holder had died.

Payroll frauds or irregularities were also uncovered.

One council found a worker had received £20,000 in sick pay over a two-year period - while working for a health board.

The scams were uncovered by the National Fraud Initiative, which formed part of the auditing process for 74 public organisations, including councils, police, health boards, the Scottish Public Pension Agency, and the Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

Information about dead people, public sector staff and pensioners, benefit applicants and others was scrutinised for "inconsistencies" and then cross-checked.

Some 49 housing benefit cases have already been passed on for possible prosecution and this number is expected to rise, said officials.

The investigation also led to 17 employees being sacked or resigning, Authorities are trying to recover around £2.8m in overpayments, and will also save about £3.9m by stopping pensions being wrongly paid out.

One case involved a pensioner living in a nursing home. He died in October 2004 but his pension was not cancelled until October 2007, by which time £25,000 had been overpaid.

Another case involved a tenant who was working with the council while receiving benefit. An interview revealed their partner was also a council employee wrongly receiving benefits.

The combined overpayments came to £100,000 and both are to be reported to the procurator fiscal.