INNOVATION and good practice have resulted in a hat-trick of awards for York's environment and trading standards officers.

City of York Council's food and safety team, health and safety team and trading standards fraud unit have all received nationally-accredited awards recognising their achievements.

Trading standards scooped the prestigious Knowledge Management Project prize at the Information Management Awards 2002.

The gong celebrates the council's ground-breaking fraud detection system. The technology scans and cross matches telephone numbers in adverts, allowing officers to spot fraudulent traders who are posing as private individuals when selling goods and services.

The "Image-Gen" system has been so successful that in the seven months it has been in use, over 300 cases of possible fraudulent trading have been highlighted in the region, compared with 17 cases prosecuted nationally in the last two years.

Peter Marsland, of City of York Council, said: "The Image-Gen system has revolutionised the way in which we carry out this type of work."

The council's food safety team has received the IS0 9002 quality assurance accreditation for its quality management system.

The system, developed in partnership with the seven district council environmental health services in North Yorkshire, aims to ensure that the food safety enforcement activity in York is consistent with neighbouring local authorities.

Dawn Webster, acting food and safety manager at the council, said: "Every year the food safety team inspects over 800 food businesses for compliance with food safety laws and deals with over 900 complaints and inquiries from residents, including cases of suspected food poisoning."

Making up the trio of successes is the council's health and safety enforcement team which has won an award from the Health and Safety Executive/Local Authority Committee (HELA) in recognition of its innovative work in promoting health and safety.

The team has been recognised for the launch of the city-wide Good Neighbour Scheme which encourages larger employers to help small businesses with health and safety at work. Colin Rumford, acting head of environmental health and trading standards, said: "We are proud to be recognised for the third year running."

Updated: 09:59 Monday, December 30, 2002