Robert Jones (63) and his wife, Marilyn Jones (60) admitted falsely claiming £8,926 in housing benefit and council tax benefit payments between March 2008 and September 2010, which they will have to repay to the council in full.
In addition, the magistrates fined each of them £100 and ordered them to pay £50 costs plus a £15 victim surcharge. The sentences reflected their co-operation with the council’s investigation team and their early guilty pleas to the court.
The court was told that when the couple were first paid benefits in March 2008, they failed to tell the council’s Benefits team that Mrs Jones had just started a full time job.
They maintained the deception for two-and-a-half years, with Robert Jones making two further statements to the council when their claims were reviewed, falsely declaring that Mrs Jones did not work.
It wasn’t until an investigation was launched in August 2010 that the truth emerged.
Speaking after the case, Claire Webber, the council’s Strategic Investigations Manager, said:
Mr and Mrs Jones’ claims for housing benefit and council tax benefit were false from the day they were first paid and now, because of their dishonesty, they both have criminal records.I suppose she's tried to make the best of a pathetic sentence. They've got away with it.
The council has a zero tolerance approach to benefit fraud and when caught, fraudsters not only have to repay the money they have stolen, but will find themselves named and shamed in the local press.
1 comments:
If you borrowed £8K, you would pay more than £200 in interest.
And theres nothing to stop them making new claims.
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