The fraud was uncovered by Brent Council's Audit and Investigation unit after a data matching exercise showed that rather than being a single, unemployed mother, as she had claimed, Ms Boateng had been employed since October 1991.
Ms Boateng originally applied for income support from Jobcentreplus in March 1990. She later submitted claims for benefits from Brent Council and was awarded housing and council tax benefit from December 1998 - when she had already been employed for eight years.
As a result of a data matching exercise Ms Boateng's claim was brought to the attention of investigators who discovered that she had in fact been in full time employment since at least October 1991. She was initially employed as a Support Manager with Transport for London (so in the state sector, but her 13 years there weren't picked up) and then transferred to Tubelines Ltd in 2004. She was earning over £25,000 per year (salary as at 2004/5) and received over £20,000 in 2005 after volunteering for redundancy.
She failed to advise the Jobcentreplus or Brent Council about any of these changes in her circumstances continuing to claim benefit as a single, unemployed mother.
When initially interviewed about this matter in 2006, Ms Boateng denied any employment. When challenged she refused to answer any questions and failed to co-operate any further with investigators. Note she is interviewed in 2006, but benefits continue until March 2007.
When the matter was brought in front of the courts, Ms Boateng pleaded guilty to six charges of benefit fraud.
Ms Boateng was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work in the community. In addition she was ordered to pay £75 towards legal costs.
Brent Council Deputy Leader, Cllr Bob Blackman, Lead Member for Resources, said:
Once again the hard work of council investigators has paid off with the conviction of a benefit fraudster. We will always go after people who are defrauding not only the council but local residents out of money which could be spent on other public services.Very slowly, Bob - she was first interviewed in 2006 and the case came to court in 2010. Well done!
In passing sentence the judge indicated that under normal circumstances a custodial sentence would have been considered however in this instance she was using her discretion as sending Ms Boateng to prison would mean her losing her job and lose the means to repay her debt. So she's found another job.
Financial investigators are still pursuing Ms Boateng with a view to confiscating gains made by her from her criminal activity. To date she has repaid over £4000 of housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support.
Only £64,000 to go.
- These people do it for the money. So hit them in the pocket. It was money that motivated them, and a financial penalty will help to deter them.
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. A confiscation order should be automatic and immediate.
If you don't punish people who are convicted of an easy crime, the offence will continue to look attractive.
Theresa May, please note. Taxpayers lose around £3.5bn a year to benefit fraud.
3 comments:
Nothing to add, jsut saying keep up the good wrok compiling all this.
Do you not notice a pattern emerging?
Thank you! Yes several patterns. The enforcement is overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of claimants, the infrastructure is shambolic, and sometimes the sentencing is almost wilfully deterrent-free. For instance, if you're a mother who's unlucky enough to get caught, probably not very much will happen to you.
On top of all this is the level of fraud. Insiders are starting to say it's way over my £3.5bn guesstimate, which itself is way over the government's figure. I'm happy to hear from other insiders.
Any other thoughts on patterns, Mark or anyone?
This type of case is endemic in the benefits system, why, because when people claim benefit they are not required to complete another application form or contact the benefit paying authority whatsoever unless of course they have a change circumstance affecting their claim. Its all based on trust. So in reality, if you want to scam the system its quite easy, claim and then do whatever you want and there is a high possibility that you will never get caught. The benefit system is totally out of control and so heavily biased towards those that sit on their backsides its like swimming against the tide for the authorities. The last administration was quite content to write off billions each year in lost finance which is probably why their accounts have not been signed off by the NAO for umpteen years in succession, its going to get much worse before its gets better, how do I know this, I work in enforcement trying to catch people everyday and we're losing
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