Benefit fraud prosecutions in Bromley

Frank Czarnecki, from Penge, pleaded guilty to defrauding Bromley Council of housing and council tax benefits totalling £10,908 between December 2008 and December 2009. A data matching exercise showed that he had not declared income held in bank accounts. Czarnecki was sentenced at Bromley Magistrates Court to a 12 month community order with supervision, a six week curfew order from evening to morning and ordered to pay £475 costs.

James Drake, from Orpington, pleaded guilty to defrauding Bromley Council of housing benefit totalling £2,432 between January 2009 and October 2009. A tip off showed that he had failed to declare that he was related to the landlord. Drake was sentenced last week at Bromley Magistrates Court, having been arrested for previously failing to attend court, to a 12 month community order requiring 120 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £475 costs.

These cases bring the total of Bromley claimants prosecuted to 230 since Bromley and Greenwich Councils started working in partnership to track, trace and prosecute benefit fraudsters.

• Both of them easy crimes to hide. 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.
  
  Everyone convicted of benefit fraud who doesn't go to prison 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. 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.