Failures in "fundamental controls" within Dundee City Council's financial systems allowed an employee to embezzle more than £1m in almost seven years, a report has found.

The Accounts Commission report states the extent of the fraud, carried out by IT worker Mark Conway between August 2009 and May 2016, could have been limited if the local authority had addressed significant weaknesses in its invoicing systems.

Conway, who was 52 when he was jailed for more than five years in August last year, had unrestricted access to several systems which allowed him to submit fake invoices to the council with the names of genuine suppliers but giving his own bank account details for payment.

The fraud totalled £1,065,085 resulting from 57 transactions to two bank accounts, with payments ranging from £6,000 to more than £27,000.

The scheme was discovered in May 2016 when, as part of the council's year-end procedures, an invoice for £7,337 was highlighted where supporting information could not be found.

Finance staff notified senior management and Police Scotland were then called in.

The report states: "In particular, the lack of segregation of duties allowed the perpetrator access to a number of systems, enabling them to carry out the fraud.

"Internal controls such as system reconciliations were not carried out or were ineffective."

The report said the council has since addressed the issues that led to the fraud, bringing in more robust management of their financial systems.

Graham Sharp, chair of the Accounts Commission, said: "Lessons must be learnt from this serious and prolonged act of fraud.

"Our role is to provide the assurance people expect that all councils have in place robust checks to ensure public money is properly spent and accounted for."

A Dundee City Council spokesman said: "A report considering the Accounts Commission's findings will go before a meeting of Dundee City Council on April 23.

"Following the discovery of this crime, the council has taken action to prevent a fraud of this type from happening again in the future.

"An independent review of procedures has already gone ahead and measures have been put in place to strengthen controls."