A FATHER who cheated the taxpayer out of nearly £29,000 in benefits while he took his wife and children on a 10-month Caribbean cruise on the family yacht has been jailed.
Simon Daymond-Harris, aged 37, doctored bank statements to try and hide the fact he was out of the country – claiming one cash withdrawal was from Trago Mills when in fact it happened in St Lucia.
Plymouth Magistrates' Court was told that he claimed for nearly four years that he was paying £925 a month in rent at a four-bedroom waterside apartment in Millbay Marina Village. But the flat was owned by his parents and he lived there rent-free. He was overpaid £28,778.45 between 2006 and last year.
Daymond-Harris was paid between £460 and £560 a month in housing benefit by the city council because he was supposedly on a low income.
District judge Paul Farmer, sitting with a magistrate, said that his crime was deliberate and planned and involved a substantial amount of money.
He added: "This was a deliberate fraud which was dealt with in such a sophisticated way. Clearly it is appropriate that you and people like you the courts see are given a deterrent sentence."
Daymond-Harris, now living at Youlditch Barn in Tavistock, was jailed for 12 weeks.
He admitted making a false statement to obtain benefit in August 2006. He also admitted two similar offences in March 2007 and May 2008 including submitting false bank statemnets, rent books and a false written statement to support his claim.
Helen Morris, prosecuting for the city council, said that Daymond-Harris submitted a joint application with his wife for housing benefit in August 2006 because they were on a low income.
She added that he said he was renting a four-bedroom apartment in Custom House Lane for £925 a month.
Mrs Morris said that he claimed he was working for 16 hours a week behind the bar and also at home for a pub in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. His income was said to be just £90 a week.
She added that suspicions were aroused by unexplained deposits in his account shown on bank statements he gave in support of the claim.
The court heard that officials then found he was listed as the licensee of the pub in High Wycombe.
Mrs Morris said that checks with the Land Registry then proved that the flat was owned by Daymond-Harris's parents – in contradiction to what he had claimed.
She added that checks on the internet – including a blog from Daymond-Harris's seven-year-old son – seemed to show the family had gone on a trans-Atlantic yacht cruise shortly after submitting the claim.
Mrs Morris said that Daymond-Harris had left the UK on his parents' yacht the Sakida in November 2006 and he did not return until October 2007. He went with his wife and their three children, though all but the eldest son returned in May 2007.
The court heard that the couple now have a fourth child.
Mrs Morris said that the council obtained Daymond-Harris's original bank statements.
She said that the housing benefit paid into his bank account by his mother covered the cash withdrawals in the Caribbean.
Mrs Morris added: "When it was put to him in interview that a cash withdrawal made in St Lucia was changed to Trago Mills he admitted that it did not look terribly good."
Daymond-Harris admitted changing the bank statements, putting the wrong landlord's name on his claim and making up entirely false rent books.
He confessed to never paying any rent on the property.
Daymond-Harris, representing himself in court, said: "I know this is very serious and I am very sorry. I can assure you I will not appear in court again. I cannot say why I did it, I just don't know."
The court heard that he had quickly repaid the entire amount he had claimed, thanks to a loan from his father.
A Plymouth City Council spokesperson said after the case: "Benefit fraud is not a victimless crime. Those who obtain benefit fraudulently are stealing from the city and from the people of Plymouth."
Under the report, don't miss the forthright comments.
0 comments:
Post a Comment