A DRIVER who fiddled £44,000 in benefits over six years by taking cash-in-hand jobs has been spared jail. Stephen Gooch was now working long hours as a taxi driver to pay back the money, Teesside Crown Court was told.
Gooch said that he began fiddling benefits when he split from his wife and three children and he went into debt to set up a new home.
The judge told Gooch that the sentencing guidelines urged a custodial sentence. But he said: “I am going to suspend the sentence of imprisonment because you are now working and paying back the money.” We're not told how much he's paid back or how long it will take. Doubtless a very long time and that's without interest.
Gooch, from Middlesbrough, was given a 32-week jail sentence suspended for two years with 200 hours’ unpaid work after he pleaded guilty to seven charges of making false representation for benefit between 2001 and 2007.
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