Darren Bound pleaded guilty to falsely claiming
more than £5,000 in benefits.
A Chorley Council investigation officer contacted him about another claimant who was under investigation. Bound let it slip that the claimant was a work colleague ... but he himself was receiving benefits on the basis that he was unemployed.
Although he tried to cover his tracks, a quick call to his employer confirmed that he had been in work for four months.
He was fined £195 and ordered to pay £100 costs and £15 victim surcharge. "Steps are being taken to recover the overpaid benefits in full."
With this light sentence South Ribble magistrates are insulting taxpayers.In a separate case a Croston woman has pleaded guilty to falsely claiming more than £2,500 in housing and council tax benefit.
She failed to tell Chorley Council that she was receiving Tax Credits. Council investigators found out about the deception following a benefit data matching exercise.
She was given a
12 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £75 costs.
Another non-punishment.And in this computer age, why do we still rely on claimants to tell paying agencies what money they are receiving from other parts of government when the data is already on government computers?We lose £3.5bn in benefit fraud each year. The amounts are huge, the precaution is basic. Yet the government does not put these basic safeguards in place.