22 stone woman deplores benefit cut

This is outside the title of the blog, in that there is no allegation of fraud. But it shows an attitude to 'welfare' which is dangerous to society ... these payments don't come from the sky, we pay for them from our taxes ... money we might prefer to keep.

An obese St Leonards woman says she can no longer afford to diet after being told her giant 22-stone frame no longer qualifies her for disability allowance.
Laura Ripley, of Stonehouse Drive, has battled to lose weight for years after ballooning to 38 stone back in 2005, with the help of more than £8,000 of NHS treatment.

She lost 16 stone by going to the gym twice a week, eating healthily and having a costly operation to have her stomach stapled.

She even managed to compete in the Race for Life in Alexandra Park last year.

In fact, such was her progress, the huge Take That fan was told she was no longer classified as disabled and that her £340 disability allowance would be cut.

Now though the 25-year-old is saying that decision will cause her to pile the pounds back on because she can no longer afford to eat as much healthy food or pay her gym membership.

This despite the fact that her and her boyfriend still receive around £600 a month in hand outs and live in a flat which boasts Sky TV.

Speaking to the Observer this week, Miss Ripley said: "I used the £340 to buy healthier food and paid to go to Falaise Gym twice a week. If I had the money I'd love to carry on going but I've had to cancel my gym membership.

"My money was cut because I've lost a lot of weight but I'm still not fit enough to work.

"I cannot do much because of my obesity and I also suffer from depression and anxiety.

"I have put on a bit of weight since the benefit was stopped. I do eat crisps and chocolate but what person doesn't when they are depressed?"

Miss Ripley, who lives with her 28-year-old boyfriend Simon Hawkins - an unemployed chef who moved to St Leonards from Manchester after the pair met in internet chat room - was pilloried last week in the national press and labelled a fat scrounger.

However, these are claims she disputes and is adamant she has been misrepresented. "I only eat junk food when I am down but still eat a lot of healthier food." said Miss Ripley, "I usually eat Bran Flakes or museli for breakfast, stay clear of bread all together because it bloats me, and eat fruit, vegetables and crispbread for lunch.

"I'm sick of people thinking of me in a bad light and I want to prove them all wrong. I've lost so much weight and simply would not just stuff myself again. I limit myself to 1,200 calories a day.

"We try to eat as healthily as we can on our limited budget. We use a shop in town that sells food slightly out-of-date because it is cheaper."

Miss Ripley, who wants to become a fitness instructor, said between her and Simon they live off £600 a month in benefits. This is made up of £400 incapacity benefit and £200 income support.

The money is used to pay £70 towards the monthly rent on their two-bedroom flat, electricity, water supply and food.

Her love affair with junk food began when she was 12. Back then she already weighed 15 stone and was bullied relentlessly. She says cruel classmates dubbed her Mrs Blobby and that she was often kicked - resulting in a life-long struggle with depression.

However, Miss Ripley - who plans on appealing against the decision to cut her benefits - says she will not give up on her dream of being thin.

She said defiantly: "If all goes well I should be able to have a full gastric bypass operation in a few months time.

"I am not giving up as it is my dream to get into a pair of size 12 jeans."

htp Dave

Light sentences for systematic fraudsters

Most benefit frauds are isolated crimes by an individual. These two saw benefit fraud as an attractive strategy, as part of systematic fraud which involved mortgage frauds as well.

Kevin McCarthy, from Luton, was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment and Martina Carroll to 9 months imprisonment suspended for 2 years and 150 hours unpaid work in the community.

Luton Council’s investigations team discovered the couple had committed a series of benefit and mortgage frauds spanning nearly 16 years and involving over £200,000 in dishonestly appropriated mortgage advances and benefit payments.

Mr McCarthy claimed housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support when living in Boxted Close in Luton, claiming he was privately renting the property from a landlord who lived in southern Ireland. However, he was in fact the owner of the property, which he bought under a false identity. He also failed to tell the authorities he was working as an accountant, carrying out stock audits and accountancy work for pubs and hotels in the hospitality industry.

Mr McCarthy fraudulently claimed £62,477 in benefits from the Council and the DWP and £50,661 through several mortgage frauds.

Ms Carroll fraudulently claimed £17,656 in benefits from the Council and the DWP, and £100,000 through a mortgage fraud.

The two defendants played different roles, which saw Mr McCarthy planning and organising a set of frauds over several years using a false identity and false documents. Ms Carroll willingly participated in these actions but to a lesser degree.

DVD copiers were benefit thieves on the side

A father and his two sons who used dozens of Chinese "slaves" to pull off Britain's biggest DVD piracy scam have been jailed for up to six years each. While claiming benefits, they made up to £7m in an operation using "largely illegal Chinese immigrants", some of whom are thought to have been smuggled into the UK.

Despite the millions they were making, the Skeikhs were enjoying cash housing benefit handouts.

Sheikh senior was also on incapacity benefit while regularly jetting off abroad on holidays and to meet business contacts.

Light sentence for £6k Runcorn benefit thief

Clare Wilson failed to notify the DWP that she was living with her employed husband, despite claiming housing and council tax benefits.

Advanced credit searches showed that the couple had applied for credit from the same address between November 21, 2001 and September 27, 2007.

Wage details received from the husband’s employers confirmed his address as Bridgeway West, and that he had his wages paid into a joint bank account that he holds with Clare Wilson.

A council investigation concluded that she was not entitled to income support for the period her husband was living at the address.

And as a result, she incurred a total benefit overpayment of £6,256.

She received a two-year conditional discharge and was ordered to pay £150 towards the council’s legal fees.

In addition, she must repay her overpayment of benefits to both the council and DWP.

• People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

Barnsley benefit frauds

Three Barnsley residents have been taken to court by the council for benefit fraud totalling nearly £18,000. Two got off very lightly.

Carl Nicholls falsely claimed £12,160 in housing benefit by failing to report that his landlord was actually his father. Barnsley Magistrates sentenced him to eight weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, and ordered that he undertake 150 hours' unpaid work in the community, and pay costs of £300.

Derek Mosley pleaded guilty to obtaining £3,096 in housing benefit and council tax benefit by failing to declare that his son, James Mosley, had started work. He told Barnsley Council in February that his son James was working as a painter and decorator, but had failed to report the change at the time James started work in July 2007. Magistrates ordered a conditional discharge for three years and £295 costs.

Tracey Senior pleaded guilty to obtaining £2,732 in housing and council tax benefit by failing to report that her husband, Darren Senior, was working as a driver. Senior admitted she had submitted false statements to obtain benefit and failed to tell the council when her husband started work. She was given a three-year conditional discharge plus £295 costs.

Light sentence for Deddington benefit fraud

Oliver Robinson was working as a tyre and exhaust fitter between April 30 and August 12 2007 when he made claims totalling almost £800.

At Banbury Magistrates' Court he pleaded guilty to fraudulently claiming £607 of housing benefit and £178 of council tax.

He was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £100 court costs. He must also pay back the money he stole from the taxpayer.

Cherwell District Council portfolio holder for communications and public relations, Cllr Kieron Mallon, said:

The residents of Cherwell are increasingly becoming fed up with people who claim more than they are entitled to and drain public money.

"They see the hotline as a free and easy way to report people fiddling the benefits system and stealing their money.

• They will not be encouraged by meaningless sentences like this. People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have.
  
  If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

100 hours for £2.5k benefit fraud

A benefits cheat has been ordered to perform 100 hours’ community service for wrongly claiming just under £2,500, and pay £100 court costs.

Andrew Turner, from Gravesend, continued to receive his jobseekers’ allowance, housing and council tax benefits even after landing a part-time job.

£24k benefit fraud but probably no jail

A female darts champion who claimed she was too disabled to work was exposed as a benefits cheat after she played in a string of tournaments.

Frances Thompson was warned she faced a suspended jail sentence after getting £23,790 in disability allowances between September 2000 and November 2004 while playing regularly in ladies' darts tournaments.

She had claimed her chronic spine disease left her in constant pain and unable to walk or fend for herself. But after she was pictured in a local newspaper accepting two trophies, a tip-off to the DWP led to an investigation and she admitted benefits fraud.

The case was adjourned and Thompson, who walked into Newcastle Crown Court with a cane, was released on bail.

Recorder Graeme Hyland said: 'She is 55, she is of good character, and she is in poor health.

'This offending clearly crosses the custody threshold but prison is not the place for this woman. I have in mind imposing a suspended sentence.'

She is not of good character! She is a thief who stole nearly £24,000!

Richmond whimpers over blue badge fraud

Richmond Council has released a statement pointing out that thousands of pounds of revenue are being lost because able-bodied drivers are fraudulently using disabled people’s Blue Badges to avoid parking ticket fees.

Some 5,000 Blue Badges are currently issued to residents of Richmond, a large number. They are valid for three years. The Council has estimated that for every badge which is fraudulently used for a year, approximately £3,500 is lost by people not paying parking fees - an astonishing figure. Do residents of Richmond really each pay £3,500 a year to park?

In the most recent case of fraudulent use, a parking officer at the Council spotted four able-bodied youths climbing out of a car which had a Blue Badge in the window. Police tracked down the owner of the vehicle who admitted the badge was not his and he has now been dealt with by officers.

Not very severely, we may assume, or they would have said so. If misuse of disabled blue badges is a serious social issue, why would the council not prosecute?

The Council conclude by saying they encourage people who believe a blue badge may be being wrongly used to report it by calling the Accessible Transport Unit on 020 8831 6191. "The Council’s Accessible Transport Unit is working with fraud officers to combat Blue Badge misuse and will always co-operate with police to prosecute or caution those found to be illegally using the badges."

Caution?

So is this a serious problem in Richmond or not? The statement carefully gives no indication how many frauds they've detected lately.

All in all, this statement is a cost-free way to say something pretty ineffective about an issue which Richmond Council cannot show that they are treating as a serious problem. They've probably been lobbied. But there's no sign that they're doing anything.

A litany of light sentences

The (South Yorkshire) Star headlines this story "Benefit scam mum of eight is spared jail". They know their readers' expectations.

Ann Shaw, from Sheffield, continued to claim benefits from June 2002 to 2008 despite working at a childcare centre. She got £9,316. She was sentenced to 120 hours community service with £50 costs. The court was told she had "already" begun paying back the fraudulently claimed money at - £10 per week.

"Two women have been convicted of fiddling thousands of pounds from the benefits system - and they won't go to jail", reports the Manchester Evening News. Is there conceivably a message here? Not one that the judiciary wants to hear.

Sheila Smith was given a year's jail sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work after claiming more than £39,000 in income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit between March 2003 and February 2008. She had failed to tell the benefits office she was working.

Melanie Richards fraudulently obtained housing benefit, council tax benefit, income support and jobseeker's allowance totalling £10,829 between January 2006 and July 2008. She had also failed to tell the benefits office that she was working. She was given a 40-hour community punishment order with an `activity requirement' and ordered to pay costs of £150.

And a £35,000 benefit fraud doesn't bring prison....

Wendy Worral from Prescot fraudulently claimed £35,202 on the basis that she was a single parent. She was given a 36 week sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to observe a three month curfew between 8pm-6am and carry out 100 hours of unpaid work. She must also pay £300 costs.

Compare those sentences with these two, and wonder about the proportionality.

Deborah Wills, from Warrington, stole more than £7,000 in housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support between October 2007 and August 2008. She had been working as an escort but didn't tell the council or the DWP. She was given 120 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £150 in costs.

Finally in this dismal catalogue, Joanne Lawless, from Great Sankey, failed to declare she had a partner living with her for more than a year from June 2007. She claimed more than £3,000 in benefits and received a 60 hour community penalty plus being forced to pay the money back as well as a £200 fine.

Tax credit fraud is at least £250m

The National Audit Office has reported on the dog's breakfast that is tax credits. For 2007-8, HMRC estimated fraud and error overpayments as between £1.58bn and £1.84bn (7.9% to 9.2% of the final award by value). After all these years, that is a clear sign of a system which is expensively unworkable.

Since 2006-07, we are told, increases in error and fraud have been primarily in the categories of ineligible children, overstated work and hours and ineligible disability claims. HMRC estimates that fraud accounted for £150m (8.8%) of total error and fraud in 2007-08. This is higher than the estimated £40m (2.8%) of fraud identified in 2006-07, "but is partly explained by a change in approach to the classification of fraud cases in its Error and Fraud Analysis Programme".

In other words, they haven't got a firm handle on it. So we're talking £150m+. If HMRC asks a taxpayer questions, they may say that an attempt at a fraud was just a mistake.

HMRC are belatedly making more use of other data to corroborate information provided by claimants, for example by matching tax credits data against child benefit records to identify young people who are no longer in full-time non-advanced education but still included in a tax credits award.

These estimates do not include figures for organised fraud. We are told blandly that in 2008-09 losses from organised fraud were £31.9m. Presumably that's identified losses. How much more did organised crime get away with? A total of £50m seems a modest guess.

And do we believe that individuals' fraud was only three times that figure? Tax credits were paid to 5.9m families in 2008-9, at an administrative cost of £584m.

HMRC's numbers put tax credit fraud at £181.9m. I'd suggest £250m looks like a conservative estimate.

No prison for £35k benefit fraud

A Gloucester woman who claimed thousands of pounds in benefits – despite owning two homes – walked free from court yesterday.

Mum-of-one Tatjana Akins, 44, cheated the state out of more than £35,000 between 2001 and February 2007.

Throughout that time she owned a house in Morpeth Street, Gloucester, and in 2006 she bought a second house in the city's Longford area.

She wrongly claimed £16,800 housing benefit, £8,700 Jobseekers' allowance, £6,000 income support and £3,400 council tax benefit.

Recorder Tm Mousley, QC, sentenced her to 12 months in jail, suspended for two years, and ordered her to do 200 hours of unpaid community work.

The prosecution told the court that in 2001 Akins claimed to be single and unemployed with one child and no assets or property.

"In fact, at that time, and since 1997, she had owned a property in Morpeth Street, Gloucester, and from September 2006 she also owned another property in Longford Lane.

"On her application forms in 2001 and thereafter on various renewed applications she was asked if she owned any property or significant assets whether mortgaged or not mortgaged and she said 'No'." More about her assets

htp Percy

That doesn't seem much of a punishment for this deliberate fraud. Do we get our money back?

Benefit claimant had assets

Gavin Hark, from Oxshott, who had more than £25,000 in the bank, defrauded taxpayers out of £7,571 in housing benefit and council tax relief between November 2002 and September 2008.

Magistrates handed down a one-year community penalty order, under the terms of which Hark will have to carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work.

The bench also ordered him to pay the council’s legal costs, of £235, in full straight after the hearing. He has repaid the fraudulent benefit.

Easy benefit fraud

A benefits cheat obtained £14,306 between 2003 and 2004 by concealing a £52,000 payout for personal injury while at work. He has repaid £117.

Michael Pardoe from Droitwich first made a legitimate claim for housing and council tax benefits and income support while unemployed. But within two months he got a job with Norwich Union and failed to tell the authorities. Following a serious injury, Pardoe then claimed sick pay but failed to declare the compensation payout, which he hid in his partner's bank account.

Pardoe was sentenced to nine months in jail, suspended for 18 months, with 200 hours of unpaid community work. The recorder was unable to order compensation or court costs because his defence barrister said he had no assets. Pardoe said he kept only £17,000 of his injury payout, giving the rest away to his family. He was shortly starting a job as a lorry driver when he could begin repaying the benefits.

• People convicted of benefit fraud should have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have.

Asylum seekers mount intricate benefit fraud scam

A gang made more than £80,000 in less than six months in a massive benefits racket targeting West Midland and Staffordshire post offices.

They used dozens of giro cheques stolen by others from Royal Mail sorting offices in London that were each cashed for around £300. The scam was organised by Congolese asylum-seekers who recruited local “droppers” to cash the bent giros at more than 20 post offices throughout the Black Country and Staffordshire as part of a nationwide multi-million pound fraud.

The names of the people to whom the cheques were made payable were altered to match those on stolen bank cards used to ‘confirm’ the identity of the person cashing the benefit payout.

Small purchases were made at each selected post office to get a receipt that revealed the identification code of the branch that could then be forged onto the stolen cheque before it was cashed there. Scores of giros stolen from London sorting offices in the 12 months up to March this year have been used in frauds in the West Midlands and Scotland.

Congo-born Sami Bushabu, from Wolverhampton, targeted the post offices and recruited the “droppers” who were driven to the locations, given the cheques and paid £50 for each one they cashed. He was sent to prison for 27 months yesterday and also faces deportation on release.

Simba Made, of no fixed address, who has been trying to win asylum since arriving in 2001 from the Congo, was a key figure in the West Midland operation.

He was arrested getting off a tram in Birmingham with five mobile phones. There were three more and a DIY forgers kit at a flat he used in Darlaston along with counterfeit and stolen bank cards.

He confessed that he knew the men behind the racket but refused to name them and also declined to give passwords needed to unlock his phones. He was jailed for 39 months and is then expected to be deported.

Three of those who cashed cheques were jailed for between 10 and six months while four others received community orders. All the defendants had admitted conspiracy to defraud.

htp Percy

This won't stop people committing this easy crime

Dionne Jarvis from Lower Cambourne had failed to declare that she was living with her partner between September 19, 2007 and May 25, 2008, and claimed more than £3,000 in housing benefit and just over £600 in council tax benefit.

She was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to pay £200 costs to the council. She also has to pay back the additional benefit.

• People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have.
  
  If you don't punish people convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.

No jail for £40k benefit thief

Amanda Byrne, pretended she lived alone in Benfleet, and falsely claimed a massive £40,775 in benefits between October 2005 and November 2007.

Castle Point Council became suspicious during a benefit review in 2006. It found Byrne had given birth the previous year, and the birth certificate showed the father living at the same address. Byrne claimed the baby’s father lived elsewhere, but would stay with her three or four times a week.

However, an investigation by the council and the DWP found he had a number of links to the property, his main postal address. When faced with the evidence, Byrne, who now lives in Canvey, admitted the couple had been living together since 2005.

As well as being ordered to pay back all the money, Byrne was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 180 hours of unpaid work. She was ordered to pay £150 towards the prosecution costs and complete a 25-day employment, training and education scheme to help offenders improve their skills and get work.

• People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have.
  
  Or where's the deterrent?

htp Dave

Light benefit fraud sentences at Leyland

Julia Rourke, also known as Julia Hill, failed to tell South Ribble Borough Council or the DWP about her job and went on to claim £6,075 in benefits illegally. She was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge and must pay £150 in costs, along with the entire amount she illegally claimed.

A second Leyland woman kept her job a secret so she could carry on claiming benefits. Joanne McGrath failed to tell South Ribble Borough Council or the DWP that she was working, and went on to claim £2,694 that she was not entitled to. She was fined £195. She must also repay the cash she illegally claimed along with a £15 victim surcharge.

• Explain the deterrent here?
  
  People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have.
  
  Steal benefit at Leyland and get away with it.

htp Dave

Just be a good boyo, don't do it again, see?

Nyron Davies, from Aberavon, pleaded guilty to failing to notify the council's housing benefit section that he was no longer receiving income support.

Neath magistrates heard that the offence took place between April 22 and September 15 last year.

The overpayment was originally £1,536 but had been brought down to £1,155 by Davies making repayments. For the offence magistrates gave Davies an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered he pay costs of £160.

• If the databases had communicated, Mr Davies would not have had that temptation open to him. But he was tested, and he succumbed.
  
  People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have.
  
  But that fact remains that the government is effectively placing temptation in poor people's way.
  
  This is morally wrong.

Benefit fraud in organised crime?

Nine men have been arrested in a series of benefit fraud raids across the West Midlands.

Police and officials from the Job Centre Plus Fraud Unit and the UK Borders Agency swooped on eleven addresses in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Walsall, arresting eight men on suspicion of benefit fraud.

West Midlands Police believe some of the men - one in Handsworth, Birmingham, one in Wolverhampton and six in Walsall - may have been using false identification to claim benefits.

A ninth man was detained after more than £200,000 of cigarettes and pepper spray were found in his home in Walsall and his details passed to Customs and Excise officers.

Documents and paperwork were seized from all the properties.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "This was a successful operation into a crime which impacts on all of us. There are more people taking part in benefit fraud in this area who we are committed to identifying and removing from the system."

Previous criminal gets easy pickings of £28k

A woman who made false benefit claims pretended to be single and unemployed - but investigators found she had been married for 28 years and all her husband's wages went into her bank account.

Kay Hartop, from Buckworth, was handed a six-month prison sentence, and her husband Graham Hartop received a 12-month community order and was ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work.

Mrs Hartop had made claims for housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support between 2001 and 2007 totalling £28,341. On all her claims she said she was an unemployed single person living on her own.

A tip-off to the council's fraud team that other people lived at Mrs Hartop's address led to an investigation which revealed that the couple had lived together at a variety of addresses in Huntingdonshire. Mrs Hartop maintained her claims for benefit even though her husband worked full-time throughout.

Neither co-operated with inquiries by council investigators, so they were arrested and brought to court. Mrs Hartop pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to 11 counts of benefit fraud. Mr Hartop admitted he had lived with his wife throughout, but denied any knowledge of her claims for state benefits.

He was found guilty of two counts of allowing his wife to make false claims.

Judge Maloney told Mrs Hartop:

It is getting around that women can commit these offences with impunity. You are a dishonest person who saw an easy opportunity to make money and you took it.

He referred to previous convictions which she had for similar matters, telling her: "You stole a considerable amount of money from the public purse over a long period of time."

He told her she would serve a minimum of three months before being released on licence.

Suspended sentence for £24k benefit fraud

Louise Carr, from Gravesend, has been given a 180-day sentence suspended for two years after pleading guilty to benefit fraud. She was also ordered to complete 240 hours of community service and repay the full amount.

The 30-year-old claimed a total of £24,188 in income support, housing and council tax benefits as a single parent when in fact she was living with her partner.

Low hit rate in blue badge operation

Camden Council officers inspected 965 blue badges in vehicles on the streets in a two week operation from 22 June to 3 July.

And the outcome? 15 fraudulently used badges were recovered. Hardly a triumph bearing in mind that enforcement operations caught 140 offenders during 2008.

Each offender was fined £240, raising a total of £3,120 for the Council. The Council will now seek to prosecute all the holders of the fraudulent badges.

Finding the money for the operation wasn't straightforward. The blue badge fraud operations are carried out by the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP).

This operation was funded by the Vehicle Crime Working Group, made up of representatives from residents' groups, Camden Council and the police.

Plenty of scope for planning meetings there then.

Light sentences for big benefit frauds

Paul Thomas and Lynne Jones from Telford, who swindled taxpayers out of £47,044 in benefits they were not entitled to over five years, have been given eight-month prison sentences suspended for 18 months, and told to pay costs of £125 each. Thomas has to do 250 hours’ unpaid work and Jones 100 hours’ unpaid work plus a 12-month supervision order.

• Presumably we won't get the money back.

Tracy Lincoln, from Whitby, who claimed more than £30,000 in benefits after failing to declare an inheritance of nearly £25,000, has been sentenced to a 12-month community punishment order with 200 hours’ unpaid work, with £250 costs to the DWP and £147 to Scarborough Council. The couple are currently paying off the fraudulent gains out of Mr Lincoln’s Job Seekers’ Allowance!

• That's more money we won't get back.

A Newport mother of three who falsely claimed almost £25,000 in benefits over eight years after failing to declare she was living with her husband has been sentenced to a 26 week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. Donna Marie Webb also received 200 hours unpaid work and 12 months supervision order.

She "has made arrangements to repay the full amount", with monthly repayments of £120 a month for housing benefit and £50 for council tax. So far she has repaid £367.12.

Teacher admits second benefit fraud

Carolyn Powell, from Ware, admitted failing to notify East Herts Council of a change in her circumstances which she knew would affect her entitlement to benefits. She failed to declare that her award of incapacity benefit had ceased and that she was receiving a bursary from the NHS.

She was already under a conditional discharge given in January 2008 for other benefit fraud offences when she had made false statements by not revealing she was in receipt of child maintenance payments. On that occasion she was overpaid £981 in housing and council tax benefit between August 2006 and May 2007 and received a 12-month conditional discharge and was ordered to contribute £350 towards prosecution costs.

In the latest case, Ms Powell, a teacher at the Valley School in Stevenage, had been overpaid £1,301 housing benefit, and council tax benefit amounting to £360, between September 2007 and September 2008.

She was re-sentenced to 40 hours of unpaid work for the original offence and a further 60 hours of unpaid work in respect of the latest offences, to be completed in 12 months. She was ordered to pay £100 towards prosecution costs and she will also have to pay back the money.

• This recidivist is still teaching children?
  

Edinburgh scratches the surface of benefit fraud

New tactics to detect the sincerity of benefit claimants have resulted in a huge rise in the number of cheats prosecuted, says The Edinburgh News.

The number of people reported last year for making a range of fraudulent claims rose to 49 – a jump of more than 100 per cent from 2007/08.

Council officials "hailed the improvement", we're told.

Let's put that in context. Edinburgh don't know how many people they paid claims to in total. But as an example (outside the 2007/08 year) they say that "on 02/02/09 we were paying benefits on 44,749 claims" - a figure which is the combined total of claims for Housing Benefit, and claims for Council Tax Benefit.

Let's assume everyone was claiming for both, so that the number of claimants was half that number. Prosecutions were still only 0.2% of claimants, which is very small.

Does it matter? Look at the size of the operation. In 2007/08:

Rent Rebate (Public Sector Housing Benefit) was £66,927,624
Rent Allowance (Private Sector Housing Benefit) was £78,094,549
Total Housing benefit therefore was £145,022,173
Council Tax Benefit was £34,411,795
Total Benefits paid were therefore a massive £179,433,968.

So Edinburgh does need to do much better!

Wootton Bassett benefit cheat jailed

Deborah Church, from Wootton Bassett, who has a long history of deception, has been jailed for 21 months after a judge heard how she falsely claimed as much as £60,000 in benefits.

She claimed she was a single mother for about a decade. But in reality she was living with the father of her children who was running a business as a builder. When the relationship collapsed into acrimony he tipped off the DWP after discovering she had been claiming.

Incapacity benefit and long term welfare dependency

The Sun has picked up the figures for long term welfare dependency which the DWP produced for Fraser Nelson. The paper reports that

One million jobless Britons have been living off the state for more than 12 years.

Official figures showed a further 1.9million have been on benefits for seven years or more.

This is Fraser's diagram of the numbers.

More papers are now picking up the report in the Financial Times that many new applicants for sickness benefits are being rejected. Thus the Evening Standard:

A new testing regime for sickness benefits is rejecting more than two thirds of applicants.

Data from the first wave of the system has suggested 2.6million claimants are actually fit to work.

The figures, seen by welfare experts but still to be released to the public, also say that in some regions up to 90 per cent of those on long-term ill-health payments should go on unemployment rolls.

Although yet to be confirmed, the results offer the Government a chance to drastically reduce the £12.5billion incapacity benefit bill.

The government's ridiculous benefit fraud figures put incapacity benefit fraud at £10m! - or 0.1% of the total paid out.

Not all the applicants being rejected will be fraudsters. But some of them will be.

Two dishonest mothers

A Norwich mother who admitted dishonestly claiming £5,640 in benefits has been given a 16-week suspended sentence and ordered to do 200 hours of community work by Norwich Magistrates Court. She failed to tell the DWP she was living with a partner.

A Midlothian mother who received £22,373 between December 2006 and November 2007 by pretending her entire family was severely disabled has been sent back to jail.

Anne Marie Cockburn's cheating began just two months after being released early from a 10 month-sentence for a similar fraud involving £18,000. So no warning signs there then.

She must spend the 110 days of the unexpired portion of the previous sentence in jail, and has had 20 months added

Pendle celebrates failure

Benefit fraud teams teams in Pendle are celebrating, we are told, after identifying more than £63,000 in ill-gotten gains in 2008-9. Pendle Council cautioned 24 people, imposed seven adminstrative penalties and undertook 13 successful prosecutions, up to the end of March.

This figure equates to a mere 0.3% of the total pad out on 6,542 claims for Housing Benefit over the financial year 2008/09. And action was taken against 44 people - that's just 0.7% of the total.

Should do better.

Likely tax credit fraud accidentally revealed

A suspected fraud investigation is under way after the wrong tax credit details were sent to a Tyneside home, reports The Chronicle.

Michael Leech was shocked to find someone else’s personal details when he opened a letter addressed to his home in Gateshead.

The letter, from HM Revenue and Customs, was seeking information about tax credit payments and appeared to be meant for someone else and contained what Mr Leech believed to be his age, address, national insurance and income.

After receiving similar letters during the next six weeks, he contacted the Chronicle, who brought it to the attention of HMRC. Suspicions were aroused when it emerged nobody under that name had ever lived at Mr Leech’s address and a subsequent criminal investigation was launched.

A spokesman for HMRC said: “Since the Chronicle brought this matter to our attention, we have been treating it as a criminal offence.

“We have stopped the tax credit payments to that name and address with immediate effect. We are grateful to the Chronicle for flagging the matter up to us.”

Mr Leech contacted the tax credit office as soon as he realised the letter was meant for someone else but, due to data protection issues, they were unable to discuss the matter. Mr Leech, who lives with his wife and two sons, said: “I’m completely shocked it appears someone has been using my address to claim tax credit payments.

“I genuinely believed it was down to human error that I was being sent someone else’s details and I’m astounded there could be a crime behind it.

“You do here about mix-ups all the time, where people are sent someone else’s personal information, and I thought it was just one of those kind of cases.

“I’m very grateful to the Chronicle for finding this out for me, otherwise I may never have known.”

A spokeswoman for HM Revenue and Customs added: “If a letter from us is sent to the wrong address, the best thing to do is not open it and put ‘return to sender’ on the front, before posting it.”

You bet they'd prefer that. There's probably a massive pile waiting to be looked at - and if they do think there's a fraud they can keep it quiet.

Much better to get it some priority and publicity.

The tax credit system is a centralised organisation requiring huge inputs of personal data. What an invitation to fraud.

htp Dave

"Default case" less serious, implies Judge

Amanda Branter, from Halifax, admitted two offences of failing to notify a change of circumstance when her partner moved in.

Branter initially claimed in September 2001 but failed to report the change when visited by a Calderdale Council representative on March 16, 2006. She failed to report it a second time on April 30, 2007 when she repeated the claim.

The total overpayment was £13,158. Branter has made efforts to repay the sum at £130 per month. She has since repaid £2,000.

Recorder Ben Nolan QC at Bradford Crown Court, said: "I am satisfied that this was a default case in that you did not deliberately set out to defraud the department but you failed in your duty to notify a change of circumstance."

She was given a community order for 12 months with 60 hours of unpaid work.

Recorder Ben Nolan has got two points wrong here. First, she did defraud us. She deliberately and knowingly gave false information in 2006 and 2007. Sure, she had already failed in her duty to notify a change. But Recorder Ben Nolan ignores the later occasions.

Second, the system relies on people honestly and promptly reporting information which will be to their own financial disadvantage. To suggest that failing to do this is somehow less serious would call into question the structure of the benefits system.

Bouncer jailed for benefit fraud

Bouncer Anthony Edwards has been jailed after claiming £34,793 in benefits, when he was working outside nightclubs.

He claimed income support, incapacity benefit, and housing and council tax benefit after quitting JCB with a bad back. But he was still claiming while he worked as a bouncer between 2003 and last year.

He was jailed for 12 months despite a plea that his wife would have to give up work to look after their two children if he went to prison.

He was one of 12 people arrested on suspicion of benefit fraud in March 2008.

If cases move at this speed, there is no chance of making inroads into this mass market crime.

Jail for £19k benefit fraud

A fraudster has been jailed for fraudulently claiming more than £19,000 in benefits.

Andrew Butler claimed he was starving when he signed on the dole and began to claim housing and council tax benefits for his home in Cambridge. But he had £82,000 in the bank. People with savings of £16,000 are barred from claiming job seeker's allowance and anyone with £6,000 or more in the bank will have their benefits reduced.

He failed to attend a court hearing on June 19 and was convicted in his absence. He was later arrested and held on remand until he could be sentenced on July 3.

He was jailed for 10 weeks for two charges of benefit fraud. The authorities have also recovered the money that was fraudulently obtained.

Butler was also jailed for two weeks for failing to attend court, which will be served concurrently to his 10-week sentence.

Jail for mother who claimed benefits for dead baby

Nicola Gallagher's son Jack died soon after he was born but she claimed tax credits for him for three years. She also claimed she and her husband had split when they were still together. She was sentenced to 12 months' jail.

Baby Jack, who was born very premature, died in December 1998. But between April 2003 and July 2006, Gallagher claimed tax credits for him as well as for her four living children.

She was entitled to £7000 for the period. Because of her lies, she ended up pocketing almost £24,000. She claims she can't pay back the cash because she is too ill to work.

Her scam was exposed in 2006 after she claimed even more money - a bursary to study nursing. Her bursary forms didn't match up with her tax credit claims. The taxman launched an investigation and Gallagher was questioned.

She was due to be sentenced in April but failed to turn up at court after being taken to hospital the night before. And when she eventually returned to court last month, she changed her lawyer and tried to withdraw her guilty plea.

More

Suspended sentence for £21k benefit fraud

Martin Worster, from Redhill, had been receiving income support following depression in 2001 but failed to inform the authorities when he got a job with an insurance firm.

After an anonymous phone call it was discovered he had falsely received £21,131 in benefits.

Judge Neil Stewart sentenced Mr Worster to an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years, and ordered him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. He has begun repaying the amount he falsely claimed in monthly payments of £40!

htp Dave

Benefit frauds roundup

Lamine Konate from Peterborough continued to claim housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support without telling the authorities he had a job. He was ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid community work and repay over £4,500 he had falsely claimed, along with £300 costs.

More

A WOMAN suffering from a degenerative joint disease has been jailed for six months for failing to declare she was working while claiming more than £50,000 in benefits.

Julie Simpson maintained her claims for incapacity benefit, disability living allowance and housing benefit for almost five years while doing cleaning work.

More

John Thompson pretended his wife had left him when she was living under the same roof in Middlesbrough. The former steelworker falsely claimed housing and council tax benefit totalling £15,624 over a period of 10 years.

He bought his council house in 2004, six years after he began stealing from the public purse by claiming he lived alone. Investigators dug up finance arrangements for Sky TV and credit on a new three-piece suite which linked his wife, Kathleen, to the same address in Barrington Crescent.

Thompson was sentenced to a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years with two years’ supervision. No order to pay compensation was made.

More

Jail for £29k benefit cheat

David Crellin has been sentenced to 20 months in jail after claiming the 'highest rate mobility component' of Disability Living Allowance.

He had said he had severely restricted mobility, and could only walk a short distance with the aid of a stick.

Crellin claimed a total of £29,141 from September 1993. But as a waste disposal officer for Knowsley Council, he would load up to 2.5 tonnes of rubbish into his truck each day. And his evening job saw him walk up to two miles a day guarding premises - on one occasion, sufficiently able to beat a man.

System can't keep up with benefit fraud

Benefit fraud is a mass market crime. It costs taxpayers £2bn a year. That's a lot of benefit thieves.

Yet the procedures are clunky and slow. Here's an example of a small fraud. There is no hope of stemming mass market crime with these time consuming procedures.

A Sevenoaks man who illegally claimed more than £2,000 in benefit has been prosecuted.

Scott Coulson, 27, of Hillingdon Rise, pleaded guilty at Sevenoaks Magistrates' Court, to falsely obtaining Social Security Benefit by failing to declare he had re-started full-time paid employment.

His prosecution follows an investigation after Sevenoaks District Council's housing benefit department wrote to Coulson in October 2008 informing him an officer would visit to review his claims for housing and council tax benefit.

Coulson was receiving benefit based on being off work and receiving sick pay.

He was not at home for the first visit and just before a proposed second visit, he wrote to the benefit department to withdraw his benefit claim.

The matter was immediately referred to the district council's fraud and control team for investigation because of the sudden withdrawal.

An investigation found Coulson had left the company paying his sick pay in April 2008 and commenced full-time work with another company in June 2008 but had not informed the benefits department of the change.

As a result, Coulson illegally claimed £1,778.70 in housing benefit and £492.39 in council tax benefit.

At court, Coulson was ordered to pay a £300 fine, costs of £154.14 and a victim surcharge of £15.

The district council is actively seeking the repayment of the debt, and Coulson is expected repay it all.

Ireland saves money in child benefit check

The Irish government is to scrutinise more than 150,000 child benefit payments this year for possible fraud, writes The Herald. The benefit is paid to 600,000 mothers, and reports this week suggested it was likely to be taxed or subjected to means test from next year, saving up to €400m.

The Government wants to achieve significant savings on the €2.5bn paid in child benefit, which we are told on its own accounts for nearly 5% of all state spending.

Some ministers favour taxing child benefit, as this would enable mothers to keep some level of payment. Others favour means testing as it would be fairer and produce greater savings.

Another suggestion is that the Government might impose a cut of up to 20% across the board for child benefit next year.

In 2008 87,850 payments were reviewed and, as a result, 5,141 child benefit claims were terminated, saving €47m. "To date in 2009, a total of 88,217 reviews have been undertaken," says the minister. "It is intended to complete in excess of 150,000 reviews in the full year."

Thousands of foreign benefit claimants were investigated by between October 2007 and February 2008. "In a trawl of suspected benefit fraudsters", we are told, 479 non-national cases were found to live permanently outside the State. As a proportion that may not be high, but the investigation was said to have yielded savings of more than €4m for the Exchequer.

Single person fraud

Jo-Anne Such, from Winsford, had been secretly living with her partner for eight years but continued to claim housing benefit, Council Tax benefit and income support as a single person.

She was ordered to repay the £8,080 along with £75 court costs, and must complete 200 hours of unpaid work within 12 months.

Light sentence for benefit fraud

A mechanic has been given a conditional discharge and told to repay £8,760 in falsely claimed benefits.

Michael Wheeldon, from Faringdon, failed to notify the Vale of White Horse District Council of a change in circumstances when he moved and found a job as a motorcycle mechanic.

He appeared at Didcot Magistrates’ Court on Thursday where magistrates handed him a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay back the money plus £200 costs.

• Where's the deterrent here?
  
  People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have.

Databases not communicating

Here's another case of databases not communicating.

The government has a moral obligation to close this loophole - it's not just in the general interest of taxpayers, but in the interest of claimants themselves.

Paula Lowbridge, from Chasetown, who wrongly claimed almost £2,000 in benefits, has been ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work. She had failed to tell Lichfield District Council she was receiving tax credits.

Single person fraud

A MOTHER-OF-TWO claimed benefits to the tune of more than £11,500 as a single parent but was living with her husband, a court heard.

Pennine magistrates were told how surveillance was carried out on Rebecca Hardingham's home by the DWP, who discovered her partner was living with her.

Mr Richard Taylor for the DWP told the hearing the defendant's claim had been fraudulent from the start. She did not disclose she was married and got the cash in income support, housing and council tax benefits for herself and the two dependent children.

Hardingham, of Belgrave Road, Colne, admitted three counts of fraud by failing to disclose information, between May, 2007 and December last year. She had no previous convictions. Hardingham was given a 12-month community order, with 100 hours unpaid work and must pay £75 costs.

Mr Bill Berry (for Hardingham) said she did not accept her claim was a fraud from the start. She married her husband in March, 2007, discovered he was using heroin and they separated. Mr Hardingham went to stay with friends, returned on occasions and they later reconciled.

Mr Hardingham did not move back in but the pair spent a great deal of time together. The defendant accepted she should have disclosed the reconciliation and periods of co-habitation.

Mr Berry said while Mr Hardingham was living with the defendent, he did not gave her any money. He spent the money he had on drugs. He then began to address his drug issues, had undergone a methadone programme and started a business.

It had been a difficult time for the defendant. The solicitor told the Bench: "This is a case where you don't need to impose an immediate custodial sentence. This is a young lady who is unlikely ever to appear before you again. This is a one-off."

Benefit fraud in Hartlepool

"Benefit cheats have fiddled taxpayers out of a staggering £421,000 in Hartlepool over the last year", reports Emma Greenhalgh in the Hartlepool Mail.

"Fraudsters have also swindled £78,500 Income Support and Jobseekers' Allowance from the public's purse.... A further £206,000 may well have been sponged from the taxpayer, with 12 Hartlepool cases currently going through the courts."

Between April 2007 and April 2008, the council recorded almost £99,000 paid out in housing and council tax benefit to cheats conning the system.

For the financial year 2008-2009, that figure tripled to £343,000 – an increase of 246 per cent.

In total, she says, £46.3m and £42m was paid out in benefits for each year respectively.

Note that is the fraud identified - running at under 1% of payments made - so not so "staggering".

The question is: what proportion of benefit frauds is Hartlepool detecting?

Wimps and do-gooders call for less prison

Cherie Booth, president of the Commission on English Prisons Today, commended its report, saying that

The commission proposes that justice is more local. Crucially, more widespread use of effective community sentences would both allow us to reduce the use of prison and allow for reinvestment of resources into local communities to cut offending.

She makes two big mistakes in two sentences.

First, what does it mean for justice to be "more local"? Are the local people to have any say in their local justice policy, or is that only for the great and the good to decide? What if local people want local justice to be tougher? Douglas Carswell and Dan Hannon's book The Plan suggests one way for local people to voice their views about "local justice".

Second, she assumes that criminality is the result of under-investment. Was criminality so high when the communities were poorer? No. Could it just be that low detection rates and light sentences encourage criminality?

The Commission's chairman claimed that England and Wales punished criminals "harshly and excessively". I invite him to click the 'light sentence' tag under this post.

Judges regularly admit that benefit fraud is easy to commit and time consuming to detect. It costs us £2bn a year.

What about some deterrent sentences then?

Conditional discharge for £11k benefit fraud

Henrietta Hoare, from Stanhoe, falsely claimed £11,122 incapacity benefit while working as a carer.

She was conditionally discharged for a year and ordered to carry out 160 hours unpaid work. Costs of £100 were also imposed.

More

htp Dave

Benefit thief hid cash in dog basket

A benefits cheat has been ordered to hand over a £100,000 nest egg he had tucked away. Kevin Gibney, from Hove, concealed a small fortune from the authorities while claiming benefits, but he was finally caught after £35,000 was found hidden inside a cushion in his dog's basket while he was in prison.

He has been given three months to hand over the remaining £91,525 he had hidden, or go to prison for two years.

More

htp Dave

More benefit fraud cases

A benefits cheat, Edwina Stocker, who performed in her own murder mystery plays despite stating she had agoraphobia and a paralysed leg, has been given a jail sentence of 18 weeks, suspended for 12 months, after falsely claiming £10,666.

Donald Smith, who committed a £16,000 benefit fraud over three and a half years while employed as a council youth worker, has got away with a 12-month community order and a curfew order for six weeks between 8.30pm and 6am. He has started repaying the money. Because of the clunky way the legal system works, a proceeds of crime hearing will take place later this year.

And Patricia Veasey, who claimed she was too ill to work, received £48,000 in benefits over seven years despite having a full time job. Judge Alan Goldsack QC said it was a serious benefit fraud which would have meant jail – if it hadn't been for the two-year delay in bringing the case to court.

He said: "Because of the delay I am going to suspend the sentence. Why it takes so long to bring a straightforward case to the court I don't know, unless the DWP is chronically overworked or incompetent."

He sentenced her to 40 weeks' jail, suspended for one year, and 200 hours of unpaid community work.

The court heard she is repaying the incapacity benefit at £2 a fortnight and the other benefits at £13.20 a month.

Recorder Christopher Forsyth loses the plot

The Recorder's comments encapsulate excuses for judicial weakness. No violence, no 'immediate vicim' ... so no need for a serious sentence even though 'it is a crime that is very easy to commit'.

As long as wimps like Recorder Christopher Forsyth sit on the bench passing feeble sentences for a crime which is so easy to commit that it costs taxpayers at least £2bn a year, there is no hope of making serious inroads into this scandalous bleeding of taxpayers.

But no doubt Recorder Christopher Forsyth was left with a warm feeling.

Vivien Bell claimed over £41,000 in housing benefit, income support and council tax benefit - despite having thousands of pounds hidden away in savings accounts and a property worth more than £250,000.

With the help of her parents, she has paid back the money owed to the council and all but £2,000 of her debt to the DWP.

Melanie Benn, mitigating, said Bell had made an "extremely naive and stupid decision" to fraudulently claim the benefits.

Recorder Christopher Forsyth said Bell's family "should not become the victims" of her crime, adding: "This is not a violent crime and there is no immediate victim, it is not a breach of trust, but it is a crime that is very easy to commit."

The court heard Bell had a property worth £265,000 bought for her in 2007, as well as having more than £10,000 in one bank account, £32,000 in another and depositing another £20,000 in 2005.

Bell was given a nine-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work. She must also pay £760 in costs.

htp Dave

Fraud at Camden council

Most of this report concerns internal fraud at Camden Council.

But in the past year the council’s Internal Audit Special Investigations Team has investigated 798 benefits cases, seized 208 disabled parking blue badges, and referred five council staff to the police. They also report a “carefully co-ordinated operation” involving street surveillance and directed CCTV against a resident later prosecuted for using his father’s disabled parking badge.

Benefit fraud as part of a criminal lifestyle

Most of the cases we record here are individuals milking the system on their own. But if it's simple enough for them to do, it's to be expected that the easy pickings will attract professional criminals too. Here's one example.

A convicted Salford robber and his girlfriend who lived a luxurious lifestyle using his ill-gotten gains have been convicted of money laundering and benefit fraud today, Wednesday 1 July 2009.

Peter Anderson (born 18/01/79) of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court Crown Square to money laundering and falsely claiming £14,000 in benefits.

Danielle Bardsley (born 22/12/79) of Barrow Street, Salford, pleaded guilty to money laundering and falsely claiming around £30,000 in benefits.

Karen Bardsley (born 02/01/62) of Barrow Street, Salford, and Claire Anderson (born 16/08/76) of Murray Street, Higher Broughton, both pleaded guilty to money laundering.

Peter Anderson was arrested in April 2006 for his involvement in an armed robbery at the Lloyds TSB bank on Blackpool Road, Ashton-on-Ribble, Lancashire, during which more than £100,000 was stolen and a gun was fired at police officers. He was jailed for an indeterminate period for public protection.

Before he was arrested, he and Danielle Bardsley lived an affluent lifestyle, residing in their abundantly furnished private house in Abram - a house bought in 2001 with the proceeds of his criminality.

Little did the neighbours know that Anderson was a career criminal and that he and Bardsley were also benefit thieves.

Anderson pleaded guilty to deceiving the Department of Work and Pensions into paying him £14,000 in incapacity benefit from 2001 to 2006 by claiming he was incapable of work and that his mental state was such that he had to rely on his parents to care for him at the family home in Murray Street, Salford.

Bardsley pleaded guilty to unlawfully obtaining £30,000 in benefits from 2001 to 2006. She claimed to be a single mother who was forced to reside with her mother at her mother's home in Barrow Street, Salford. She claimed that she had no financial assistance from the father of her children Peter Anderson.

Both did their utmost to keep their ownership of their Abram home a secret from the authorities.

Family members were recruited to assist with the deception. Thousands and thousands of pounds were deviously transferred and concealed between Anderson, Bardsley, Bardsley's mother, Karen Bardsley and Anderson's sister, Claire Anderson.

Peter Anderson recruited Claire Anderson to purchase the property and front the mortgage. She opened a bank account in order that her brother could deposit his ill-gotten gains to pay the various bills and living expenses.

Danielle Bardsley's mother was also recruited to siphon £10,000 through her bank account into the account opened by Clare and was rewarded with an all -expenses paid holiday to Cancun, Mexico.

Both Claire Anderson and Karen Bardsley pleaded guilty to assisting Anderson by concealing and converting criminal property.

Anderson flashed his cash by leasing top of the range four-wheel drive cars and designer clothing to up his status among his criminal associates that include David Totton and Aaron Travers who were shot in a gangland shooting at the Brass Handles Pub, Salford, in 2006.

Following his arrest the police searched Anderson's home and recorded the trappings of his wealth which included expensive cars, top of the range televisions and sound systems, motor bikes and quad bikes and wardrobes full of designer clothing.

Hidden on top of a wardrobe was £28,000 in cash.

Further investigation revealed Anderson and his girlfriend Bardsley had spent thousands over the years on lavish holidays to places such as Florida and Mexico.

All four will be sentenced on 27 July 2009.

Didcot magistrates give up on benefit fraud

This man has just been told to pay back the money he deliberately stole from taxpayers. The only other element in the setence is a conditional discharge - 'pay it back and don't do it again'. Where's the punishment? Where's the deterrent?

Ex-soldier Emannuel Monnay claimed housing and council tax benefit while working in London as a bus driver. He was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay back £1,725 with £200 costs.

Monnay, who had been living in an MoD property in Spray Road, Abingdon, moved to London in January last year, but carried on claiming benefit from the Vale of White Horse District Council.

• People convicted of benefit fraud who don't receive a custodial sentence should have to do unpaid work.
  
  Benefit thieves should also have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have.

Ireland targets overseas benefit fraud

On purple scorpion I highlighted the role which cutting benefit fraud is to play in reducing the unsustainable deficit in Ireland. In support of this initiative, their government is now publicising the extent of benefit fraud practised by non-Irish nationals. Extraordinarily, new claimants will have to collect benefit weekly from post offices - a more expensive way of making payments, suggesting the government thinks there are large savings to be had.

The UK economy and benefits bill are, of course, considerably larger. But the problem for the UK government is that a large number for overseas benefit fraud would make their published pseudo-totals for UK benefit fraud look even sillier.

Non-national dole cheats defrauded millions of euro from the Exchequer by flying into the country once a month to sign on.

New figures obtained by the Irish Independent show thousands of foreign benefit claimants were investigated by the Department of Social and Family Affairs between October 2007 and February last year.

In a first trawl of suspected benefit fraudsters, 776 non-national cases were examined, of which 76 were found to be permanently living outside of the State.

Officials were so alarmed they ordered residency checks on a further 3,665 non-nationals, and found that 403 (11pc) of these were living outside the State and flying in once a month to collect their benefit.

The vast majority of the claimants were from Eastern European countries.

Both investigations between them yielded savings of more than €4m -- or up to €10,000 per dole cheat -- for the cash-strapped Exchequer.

The fraudsters had been getting the cash wired to bank accounts in Ireland, while flying here once a month to sign on at their local dole office.

Even with the deduction of flight costs, each claimant took home nearly €1,000 a month.

The revelation raised questions about the full extent of the fraud, which has still to be fully quantified.

Urgent nationwide residency checks were introduced for all non-Irish claimants on jobseekers' benefits after evidence of the widespread fraud became apparent last year....

The Government is also set to continue its clampdown on benefit fraud and 'welfare tourism' as it desperately seeks to cut the soaring welfare bill.

The anti-fraud drive involved a home visit to check residency within six weeks of the first signing on day. These were followed up by further visits at between six and eight months and at one year.

The frequency of the visits was varied so as not to establish a predictable pattern.

"In response to the findings of these initial checks, it was considered that a more targeted control approach to residency was required," a spokesman for Social Welfare Minister Mary Hanafin told the Irish Independent.

In view of the scale of scamming, the department decided from last July 2008 not to make electronic fund-transfer payments method available to new claimants.

They are now paid weekly to a post office of the claimant's choice.

This means that claimants must attend the post office weekly to collect their payment, and bring a photo ID, such as a passport, when signing for receipt of the cash.

From March this year, stricter identity checks were introduced in post offices for people collecting social welfare payments.

Meanwhile, border regions have put an increased emphasis on controls on claims from applicants with a previous address in Northern Ireland.

The frequency of issue of mail shots to validate continued entitlement to child benefit has also increased to one every three months for all non-nationals, the department said.

htp Dave

Court tries not to punish repeat benefit thief

The Isle of Wight Council has successfully prosecuted a woman who illegally claimed over £1500 in benefits she was not entitled to, at a hearing at Newport Magistrates Court.

In October 2008, Elaine Bonnick was discovered to be claiming both housing benefit and council tax benefit despite claiming income support and Housing Benefit from another authority from an address in Hertfordshire.

Investigations discovered Mrs Bonnick had abandoned a property in Sylvan Drive in East Cowes on the Isle of Wight without informing the letting agent, but continued to claim benefits from Isle of Wight Council.

Mrs Bonnick had submitted a Housing Benefit claim form for the Hertfordshire property to North Hertfordshire District Council stating she had moved into the property in Letchworth Garden City on 1 August 2008.

Elaine Bonnick had previously been found guilty of illegally claiming benefits she was not entitled to at a hearing at Newport Magistrates Court in July 2008. At this hearing, she was given a 2 year conditional discharge and ordered to repay the money.

During a sentencing hearing held on 25 June 2009 at Newport Magistrates Court, the conditional discharge was revoked for the previous offence and Elaine Bonnick was given a 12 week custodial sentence, suspended for 2 years, with a supervision order of a year.

For the current offence, Mrs Bonnick was also given a custodial sentence of 12 weeks suspended for 2 years, with a supervision order of 12 months. Both sentences will run concurrently.

Prison for £15k benefit fraud

Zahid Anwar from Stadbroke Grove, Chigwell pleaded guilty to the offence at Chelmsford Crown Court on June 18.

Zahid Anwar from Chigwell began claiming Housing and Council Tax benefit in September 2006, but benefit officers became suspicious of his claims and started an investigation.

They found undisclosed accounts and money transfers into these of up to £36,000.

Anwar denied knowledge of an undisclosed bank account when interviewed under caution in June 2007, but when showed the evidence admitted it was his and said he was looking after the money for friends.

Further checks revealed other undisclosed accounts in his wife's name.

In November 2007 Anwar stated he had not declared some of the accounts because they were not in current use. He said payments of £11,000 going to a casino were the responsibility of his wife, and maintained that large amounts credited to the accounts belonged to an associate who bought and sold properties.

A senior benefit officer for Epping Forest District council decided Anwar was not entitled to any benefit and had been over paid by more than £13,000 in Housing benefit and more than £2,500 in Council Tax benefit.

The council is now seeking repayment from Anwar's wife who received the money from payments into the accounts.

• People convicted of benefit fraud should have to repay twice what they've stolen, and should not be eligible for any further benefits – including tax credits - until they have.
  
  Councils should be able to get an order for repayment at the same hearing.