No punishment really.
Two people also got meaningless sentences at Craigavon Magistrates' Court for claiming benefits they were not entitled to.
A woman claimed Income Support totalling £5,846 while failing to declare capital. She was just fined £225 and ordered to pay £31 court costs.
A man claimed Jobseekers Allowance and Housing Benefit totalling £3,011 while failing to declare employment. He was given a four month prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to pay £110 court costs.
Both are also required to repay the money they wrongfully obtained to the Social Security Agency. Big deal!
1 comments:
I can appreciate your comments, however the sentences are in line with the Magistrates Guidelines to Sentencing, so to be fair its no good complaining about the Magistrates their hands are tied. I can tell you from experience that the current sentences are harder than they were even two years ago, so I would suggest that they maybe heading in the direction you would like. One of the problems is that there are more people being convicted of benefit fraud but they are not publisised in local or national papers, indeed some local authorities actually refrane from publisising successful prosecutions!!
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