An Old Trafford woman was last Friday (20 May) convicted at Manchester Crown Court of dishonestly obtaining Housing Benefit amounting to £20,092.
50 year-old Ledora Morton of Ayres Road pleaded guilty to failing to notify Trafford Council's benefits department that her landlord was the father of her three children. She was overpaid Housing Benefit between September 2001 and January 2008.
She was sentenced to a four month custodial sentence, suspended for 18 months and a 120 hour Community Punishment Order. She was also ordered to repay all the money falsely claimed from Trafford Council. Yeah, right.
Council counter fraud officers were alerted to this matter by the Council's benefits department who noticed discrepancies with Ms Morton's housing benefit claim.
Executive Councillor Sean Anstee said: "Once again the Council's commitment to using the Courts to ensure benefit cheats are brought to justice can be seen.
31 May 2011
Two visitors send their regards
Maurice Chevalier writes
I really,really hope that you're writing this stuff independently of government or any of their private sector/press allies who have a vested interest in peddling this garbage. Then, when it's your turn to experience the viciousness of a policy and media campaign designed to pauperise already poor people - and then blame them for a global fraud perpetrated by a variety of super-rich gamblers, asset strippers and conmen - you'll realise how much thanks they'll give you for doing some of their dirty work for them. There are words for people like you but I don't think I'd be legally allowed to use them in this email.Peter Humphrey contributes
Your blog is rather disingenuous, to say the least.Yes
1) Personal tax fraud is half of all UK fraud, at £15.2 billion in 2010. Almost nothing is said or done about it.
2) £16 billion a year in benefit payments goes unclaimed.
3) Between 1997 and 2007 alone I paid at least £110,000 in direct taxes. Currently my benefits total £6300 a year. I have knowingly foregone at least £2000 in 3 years that I could have claimed (but was too confused, cf point 4).
4) Employment and Support Allowance assessments are a five minute check box exercise by a nurse - not exactly rigorous. In 2009 my Incapacity benefit was withdrawn on annual assessment, despite the fact I had been sectioned, and was detained in a mental hospital at the time. I was hardly available for full time work, as Job Seekers Allowance requires. I won my appeal. The whole exercise cost significantly more than the 6 x £30 a week temporarily taken from me, ie, the food on my table. I ate at the hospital (my leave conditions had been extended to allow me to live at home, but I had to return for daily medication).
5) As a leaseholder I am not eligible for Housing benefit, but I am liable for service charges. Fortunately I was able to settle my mortgage with my redundancy payment.
As a homeowner, I do not have the flexibility to move for work. My home is not in a sufficient state of repair to sub-let. I do not have the financial resources to fix that.
6) I am now signed as fit for part-time, low pressure work only. I do voluntary work to the value of at least half of my benefits (originally funded by my taxes). Benefit regulations limit the amount of voluntary work I can do. I am not a scrounger. In fact, the nation has done rather well out of me, and continues to do so.
7) I am middle aged, work is ever harder to come by, despite my education and experience. Not even B&Q offered me a job stacking shelves. Should my benefits be reduced, my meagre savings, and the remainder of my credit limit, would not last long. Do you suggest I turn to crime to pay my bills? How much would that cost the taxpayer? Or should I just default on my debts?
8) In however small a way, I am still economically active, and I still pay indirect taxes. Incidentally, some benefits are taxable, and those who receive enough of them pay direct tax.
9) Welfare payments, including the burgeoning cost of pensions, total £187 billion per year. The bail out of the banking sector cost £850 billion.
10) Your figure of £3.5 billion is rather dubious. Even if you are correct, your concern is disproportionate and simplistic.
11) Keynes and Beveridge were not stupid. Say's Law is garbage. The invisible hand of the market is a special case, it has narrow relevance. And, cf point 8, consider the Laffer curve.
12) Remember, "but for the grace of God there go I".
Will you post this, unedited and in full?
30 May 2011
Repeat benefit fraud offender jailed
Benefit cheat Richard Barnett has been jailed after he claimed more than £30,000 while working at a club.
The 49-year-old worked 16 hours a week at Kidsgrove Labour Club while claiming incapacity benefit, Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard yesterday.
Ekwall Tiwana, prosecuting for the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP), said Barnett was paid benefits from 2000 on the basis he was an unemployed, single man who was deemed incapable of working due to a disability.
The cash was paid into a post office account every two weeks and he was required to notify any changes in his circumstances which might affect the payments.
Mr Tiwana said: "He failed to do this. It came to light with the benefit agencies he had been working at Kidsgrove Labour Club as a barman since about April 2003. He was working about 16 hours a week. He failed to declare this to the department."
Barnett was interviewed last June and confirmed he understood he needed to report any changes, particularly concerning work. He also admitted he was employed during the course of the benefit claim.
In total he was overpaid £30,874 between 2003 and 2010.
Barnett, from Kidsgrove, pleaded guilty to failing to notify a change in his circumstances in relation to his claim for benefits.
The court heard he has a previous conviction for benefit fraud in 1992 for which he received a community sentence.
Stuart Muldoon, mitigating, said Barnett is an alcoholic and has drunk alcohol each morning since he was aged 19. He said Barnett is not allowed to drink while working but drinks at home after finishing his shifts.
Mr Muldoon added that the defendant would benefit from supervision as part of a suspended sentence.
But Judge Michael Dudley said Barnett was given his chance in 1992 and he sentenced him to 10 months in prison:
The 49-year-old worked 16 hours a week at Kidsgrove Labour Club while claiming incapacity benefit, Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard yesterday.
Ekwall Tiwana, prosecuting for the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP), said Barnett was paid benefits from 2000 on the basis he was an unemployed, single man who was deemed incapable of working due to a disability.
The cash was paid into a post office account every two weeks and he was required to notify any changes in his circumstances which might affect the payments.
Mr Tiwana said: "He failed to do this. It came to light with the benefit agencies he had been working at Kidsgrove Labour Club as a barman since about April 2003. He was working about 16 hours a week. He failed to declare this to the department."
Barnett was interviewed last June and confirmed he understood he needed to report any changes, particularly concerning work. He also admitted he was employed during the course of the benefit claim.
In total he was overpaid £30,874 between 2003 and 2010.
Barnett, from Kidsgrove, pleaded guilty to failing to notify a change in his circumstances in relation to his claim for benefits.
The court heard he has a previous conviction for benefit fraud in 1992 for which he received a community sentence.
Stuart Muldoon, mitigating, said Barnett is an alcoholic and has drunk alcohol each morning since he was aged 19. He said Barnett is not allowed to drink while working but drinks at home after finishing his shifts.
Mr Muldoon added that the defendant would benefit from supervision as part of a suspended sentence.
But Judge Michael Dudley said Barnett was given his chance in 1992 and he sentenced him to 10 months in prison:
The problem with benefit fraud is that it is a crime against every taxpayer in the country. Your problem is that you have done it before. In 1992 you were convicted of benefit fraud and you were given a chance. You do not get a second chance, especially where the amount is over £30,000.
It has got to be understood, the chances are with sums of this size custody will follow, otherwise it is no deterrent.
27 May 2011
Jail for long-term benefit thieves
A couple who enjoyed a life of luxury while swindling nearly £140,000 in benefits were put behind bars.
Company boss Paul Campbell, 34, and his partner Suzie Dwyer, 36, took their kids to Florida, Barbados and Marbella, enjoyed a Caribbean cruise and splashed out on a large extension to their upmarket £379,000 home.
But Liverpool Crown Court heard the scheming couple were funding their lavish lifestyle with money they had illegally claimed from the public purse.
For more than a decade, the high-spending couple lied to the authorities to claim a string of benefits they were not entitled to – despite the fact BMW-driving Campbell was earning up to £70,000-a-year managing his family’s electronics business.
Kevin Slack, prosecuting, told how the couple’s dishonesty began in August 1999 when Dwyer moved into Campbell’s home on Middlehey Avenue, Knowsley Village. Despite living together, Dwyer continued to make bogus applications claiming she was a single mum.
The pair also scammed about £50,000 by claiming golf club member Campbell was Dwyer’s landlord – rather than her partner and dad to her three kids – so he would receive her housing benefit payments.
The “professionally- planned” fraud even involved the pair creating fake tenancy agreements to maintain the pretence she was simply his tenant.
In 2005, the couple moved into a luxury home in Tithebarn Road, also Knowsley Village, but continued with their scam.
Jailing the pair each for 16 months, Judge Bryn Holloway said: “You made persistent and false claims about your circumstances.
“No doubt that money assisted your standard of living and made it possible for you as a family unit to enjoy expensive holidays to Florida, Tunisia, Barbados, Spain and a Caribbean cruise.”
The judge added he was satisfied the fraudulent claims had enabled the couple to move into the £379,000 home, which they later extended.
The judge said he accepted the couple were spoken of highly in their community, but he told them: “People will be staggered to learn of the extent and duration of your dishonesty. I would be failing in my public duty if a sentence of imprisonment was not passed today.”
Campbell, who pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud, hugged his sobbing partner as they were led down. Dwyer had admitted 17 offences. The fraud, which also included council tax, totalled £137,392.
Mr Slack told how the pair were eventually snared after officials from the Department of Work and Pensions put them under surveillance in October last year. Investigators watched as Campbell regularly arrived at the house on Tithebarn Road, despite claiming he lived at his mum’s house. A search of the house following their arrest in November 2010 revealed his clothes inside, as well as many family photographs.
David McLachlin, defending Campbell, said he accepted full responsibility for the housing benefit scam, insisting he had thought of it and kept the cash. Campbell, whose firm employs 15 people, has repaid £21,000.
Charlotte Atherton, defending Dwyer, said she accepted the judge might find that fraud was “professionally-planned”, but said her client was “bewildered” by her position.
The pair’s children, aged 13, 11 and five, will now be cared for by her mother.
htp Dave
Company boss Paul Campbell, 34, and his partner Suzie Dwyer, 36, took their kids to Florida, Barbados and Marbella, enjoyed a Caribbean cruise and splashed out on a large extension to their upmarket £379,000 home.
But Liverpool Crown Court heard the scheming couple were funding their lavish lifestyle with money they had illegally claimed from the public purse.
For more than a decade, the high-spending couple lied to the authorities to claim a string of benefits they were not entitled to – despite the fact BMW-driving Campbell was earning up to £70,000-a-year managing his family’s electronics business.
Kevin Slack, prosecuting, told how the couple’s dishonesty began in August 1999 when Dwyer moved into Campbell’s home on Middlehey Avenue, Knowsley Village. Despite living together, Dwyer continued to make bogus applications claiming she was a single mum.
The pair also scammed about £50,000 by claiming golf club member Campbell was Dwyer’s landlord – rather than her partner and dad to her three kids – so he would receive her housing benefit payments.
The “professionally- planned” fraud even involved the pair creating fake tenancy agreements to maintain the pretence she was simply his tenant.
In 2005, the couple moved into a luxury home in Tithebarn Road, also Knowsley Village, but continued with their scam.
Jailing the pair each for 16 months, Judge Bryn Holloway said: “You made persistent and false claims about your circumstances.
“No doubt that money assisted your standard of living and made it possible for you as a family unit to enjoy expensive holidays to Florida, Tunisia, Barbados, Spain and a Caribbean cruise.”
The judge added he was satisfied the fraudulent claims had enabled the couple to move into the £379,000 home, which they later extended.
The judge said he accepted the couple were spoken of highly in their community, but he told them: “People will be staggered to learn of the extent and duration of your dishonesty. I would be failing in my public duty if a sentence of imprisonment was not passed today.”
Campbell, who pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud, hugged his sobbing partner as they were led down. Dwyer had admitted 17 offences. The fraud, which also included council tax, totalled £137,392.
Mr Slack told how the pair were eventually snared after officials from the Department of Work and Pensions put them under surveillance in October last year. Investigators watched as Campbell regularly arrived at the house on Tithebarn Road, despite claiming he lived at his mum’s house. A search of the house following their arrest in November 2010 revealed his clothes inside, as well as many family photographs.
David McLachlin, defending Campbell, said he accepted full responsibility for the housing benefit scam, insisting he had thought of it and kept the cash. Campbell, whose firm employs 15 people, has repaid £21,000.
Charlotte Atherton, defending Dwyer, said she accepted the judge might find that fraud was “professionally-planned”, but said her client was “bewildered” by her position.
The pair’s children, aged 13, 11 and five, will now be cared for by her mother.
htp Dave
26 May 2011
£23k from single parent fraud
Mother of two Alisha Dudley has received a suspended prison sentence after making bogus benefit claims of £23,000.
The 27-year-old was overpaid the money in income support and housing and council tax benefit after failing to notify the authorities she was living with her partner over a period of more than three years.
Prosecutor Graham Russell told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court that Dudley applied for income support in August 2006 after saying she and her partner were separated.
But in May 2009, the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) received an anonymous tip off that Dudley was living with Shaun Whittaker.
Dudley told investigators Mr Whittaker slept at the house three times a week, and the rest of the time he stayed at a bed and breakfast or went camping.
She said he left his clothes and toiletries at the house.
But the owner of the guest house denied knowing Mr Whittaker and said he had not stayed there. The court heard investigators contacted Mr Whittaker's employers, Pizza Hut, and the inquiries suggested he was living with Dudley at her address and his wages were paid into her bank account.
In total, Dudley was overpaid £23,625 – £8,881 in income support and £14,744 in housing benefit and council tax benefit between August 2006 and November 2009.
Dudley pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to notify a change of her circumstances; obtaining a money transfer by deception and attempting to obtain exemption from liability by deception.
Heather Drew, mitigating, said the claim for income support was legitimate at the outset as Dudley was living in a women's refuge.
But the claims became fraudulent when she returned to living independently and her partner returned to live with her.
Miss Drew said Dudley, who has two young children, has made a new start and is living independently from her partner.
She added the defendant has started to repay the money that she had falsely claimed at £50 a fortnight.
Judge Mark Eades sentenced Dudley to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, with two years' supervision and a requirement to attend sessions at Chepstow House in Hanley, which aims to help women get their lives back on track.
The judge said he was prepared to suspend the sentence because Dudley pleaded guilty, she has no previous convictions, she has two young children and has had a difficult relationship with her partner.
He added: "Benefit fraud is something the public feel very strongly about. It is people taking advantage and exploiting the welfare state for their own ends over the heads of legitimate claimants.
"£23,000 would support a nurse in full-time employment for about one year."
Judge Eades made no order for costs.
The 27-year-old was overpaid the money in income support and housing and council tax benefit after failing to notify the authorities she was living with her partner over a period of more than three years.
Prosecutor Graham Russell told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court that Dudley applied for income support in August 2006 after saying she and her partner were separated.
But in May 2009, the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) received an anonymous tip off that Dudley was living with Shaun Whittaker.
Dudley told investigators Mr Whittaker slept at the house three times a week, and the rest of the time he stayed at a bed and breakfast or went camping.
She said he left his clothes and toiletries at the house.
But the owner of the guest house denied knowing Mr Whittaker and said he had not stayed there. The court heard investigators contacted Mr Whittaker's employers, Pizza Hut, and the inquiries suggested he was living with Dudley at her address and his wages were paid into her bank account.
In total, Dudley was overpaid £23,625 – £8,881 in income support and £14,744 in housing benefit and council tax benefit between August 2006 and November 2009.
Dudley pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to notify a change of her circumstances; obtaining a money transfer by deception and attempting to obtain exemption from liability by deception.
Heather Drew, mitigating, said the claim for income support was legitimate at the outset as Dudley was living in a women's refuge.
But the claims became fraudulent when she returned to living independently and her partner returned to live with her.
Miss Drew said Dudley, who has two young children, has made a new start and is living independently from her partner.
She added the defendant has started to repay the money that she had falsely claimed at £50 a fortnight.
Judge Mark Eades sentenced Dudley to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, with two years' supervision and a requirement to attend sessions at Chepstow House in Hanley, which aims to help women get their lives back on track.
The judge said he was prepared to suspend the sentence because Dudley pleaded guilty, she has no previous convictions, she has two young children and has had a difficult relationship with her partner.
He added: "Benefit fraud is something the public feel very strongly about. It is people taking advantage and exploiting the welfare state for their own ends over the heads of legitimate claimants.
"£23,000 would support a nurse in full-time employment for about one year."
Judge Eades made no order for costs.
Data matching snares benefit thief
A Barwick woman must repay £9,750 to the public purse following a benefit fraud investigation by South Somerset District Council.
A 32-year-old woman from Barwick pleaded guilty to charges of benefit fraud after the council discovered that she had continued claiming housing benefit despite her husband returning to work in November 2007 by not informing the council.
Magistrates in Yeovil considered a prison sentence due to the significant amount of overpayment.
After detailed discussion the woman was sentenced to an 18-month community order and a 16-week curfew between the hours of 7pm and 7am after considering her personal circumstances, efforts to make amends and several good character references.
South Somerset District Council used data matching – a process that compares data held by government departments, such as DWP and HM Revenue and Customs which identifies if details of work, capital and changes in other benefits – to investigate the case.
A 32-year-old woman from Barwick pleaded guilty to charges of benefit fraud after the council discovered that she had continued claiming housing benefit despite her husband returning to work in November 2007 by not informing the council.
Magistrates in Yeovil considered a prison sentence due to the significant amount of overpayment.
After detailed discussion the woman was sentenced to an 18-month community order and a 16-week curfew between the hours of 7pm and 7am after considering her personal circumstances, efforts to make amends and several good character references.
South Somerset District Council used data matching – a process that compares data held by government departments, such as DWP and HM Revenue and Customs which identifies if details of work, capital and changes in other benefits – to investigate the case.
The fat of the land?
A clinically obese benefit fraud suspect who feared she was too fat to get into court has had her case adjourned.
Beverley Douglas told court staff she could not climb the narrow stairs to get into the dock at Inner London Crown Court for her hearing on May 18.
The 43-year-old, from Thornton Heath, is accused of conning thousands of pounds in benefits while working as a bus driver and CCTV operator.
Miss Douglas had to sit outside the courtroom while Judge Roger Chapple agreed to adjourn the hearing, which is understood to have been rearranged for a more accessible courtroom.
But her lawyer Andy Floyd, who represented her in court while she sat in the waiting area outside, said the issue of her size was never discussed in court.
He said: “Her case was adjourned, but it wasn’t adjourned because she was too fat.
“It was just because there are going to be negotiations between the defence and the Department for Work and Pensions.
“She is quite large but it wasn’t necessarily the case that she couldn’t get in."
In an unfortunate phrase, he concluded
She is due to appear at the same court on July 7.
htp: Dave
UPDATE There's a picture here.
Beverley Douglas told court staff she could not climb the narrow stairs to get into the dock at Inner London Crown Court for her hearing on May 18.
The 43-year-old, from Thornton Heath, is accused of conning thousands of pounds in benefits while working as a bus driver and CCTV operator.
Miss Douglas had to sit outside the courtroom while Judge Roger Chapple agreed to adjourn the hearing, which is understood to have been rearranged for a more accessible courtroom.
But her lawyer Andy Floyd, who represented her in court while she sat in the waiting area outside, said the issue of her size was never discussed in court.
He said: “Her case was adjourned, but it wasn’t adjourned because she was too fat.
“It was just because there are going to be negotiations between the defence and the Department for Work and Pensions.
“She is quite large but it wasn’t necessarily the case that she couldn’t get in."
In an unfortunate phrase, he concluded
I’m concerned it has just been blown a little bit out of proportion.Miss Douglas faces a total of 13 charges of claiming income support, housing and council tax while working between March 2004 and February 2009.
She is due to appear at the same court on July 7.
htp: Dave
UPDATE There's a picture here.
25 May 2011
No prison for £33k benefit fraud
Sharon Kerr, from Frodsham, has been sentenced after pleading guilty to being overpaid more than £33,000 in Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.
She had previously admitted three offences of failing to promptly notify the Department for Work and Pensions and Cheshire West and Chester Council of a change in her circumstances that she knew would affect her entitlement to benefits, namely that she was living with her partner who had paid employment, between January 2005 and June 2009.
Mrs Kerr was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years, 120 hours unpaid work and a 6 months supervision order.
She is required to fully repay the overpaid benefit to the Department for Work and Pensions and Cheshire West and Chester Council.
She had previously admitted three offences of failing to promptly notify the Department for Work and Pensions and Cheshire West and Chester Council of a change in her circumstances that she knew would affect her entitlement to benefits, namely that she was living with her partner who had paid employment, between January 2005 and June 2009.
Mrs Kerr was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years, 120 hours unpaid work and a 6 months supervision order.
She is required to fully repay the overpaid benefit to the Department for Work and Pensions and Cheshire West and Chester Council.
24 May 2011
£16k benefit fraud to be repaid at £25 pw
A security guard who fraudulently claimed more than £16,000 in benefits has been convicted after an anonymous tip-off to Croydon Council.
Ayyaz Chatha, 30, from Thornton Heath, pleaded guilty to failing to notify the council’s benefits department that he had begun full time employment for a security company in Bromley.
Chana raked in £16,1414 in housing and council tax benefits in the 19 months he was working, Croydon Magistrates’ Court heard on May 10.
He was sentenced to do 130 hours of unpaid work and ordered to repay the benefits at £25 a week, in addition to costs of more than £1,400.
The council’s anti-fraud team works to uncover benefit fraud and helps prosecute cheats to ensure the limited funds available go to those who really need it.
The team’s work also helps those that really are eligible for benefits get the help they need to enhance their lives.
Councillor Dudley Mead, Croydon Council’s cabinet member for finance and resources, said: “Benefit fraud will never be tolerated by this council and we have a very good track record of finding and prosecuting cheats.”
Ayyaz Chatha, 30, from Thornton Heath, pleaded guilty to failing to notify the council’s benefits department that he had begun full time employment for a security company in Bromley.
Chana raked in £16,1414 in housing and council tax benefits in the 19 months he was working, Croydon Magistrates’ Court heard on May 10.
He was sentenced to do 130 hours of unpaid work and ordered to repay the benefits at £25 a week, in addition to costs of more than £1,400.
The council’s anti-fraud team works to uncover benefit fraud and helps prosecute cheats to ensure the limited funds available go to those who really need it.
The team’s work also helps those that really are eligible for benefits get the help they need to enhance their lives.
Councillor Dudley Mead, Croydon Council’s cabinet member for finance and resources, said: “Benefit fraud will never be tolerated by this council and we have a very good track record of finding and prosecuting cheats.”
23 May 2011
Recidivist £112k benefit thief due for sentencing
A mother claimed her children and husband were severely disabled in a £112,000 benefits fraud to fund her obsession with celebrities.
Jayne McKnight, 45, pretended her four children aged ten to 25 had epilepsy and severe learning difficulties. In fact just one was epileptic.
All four children epileptic but no one even took a look?
She said her husband David, 47, had gout and could not work, when he too was perfectly healthy and worked as a van driver.
She spent the cash on concert tickets and backstage passes, touring the country to meet her celebrity idols.
She posed for pictures with dozens of stars including Susan Boyle, Ronan Keating and the late Stephen Gately from Boyzone, and posted them on her social networking pages, describing them as ‘my famous mates’.
You have to wonder how they managed at home.
She followed other boy bands including Westlife, JLS and The Wanted on tour, persuading them to pose for a shot with her or her daughters, Samantha, 17, and Melissa, ten.
Ah. Presumably during the school holidays?
She travelled around the country to dozens of X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent auditions to meet contestants such as Alexandra Burke.
McKnight splashed out on flat-screen TVs, Xbox gaming consoles, hi-fi equipment and laptops for herself and the children, but investigators believe most of the cash went on tickets because McKnight said she was ‘happiest when at a gig’.
And the family never asked where the money came from?
Initially she claimed in 2003 that just one of her children, who genuinely suffered from epilepsy, was severely disabled, pocketing £3,900 a year in child tax credits.
From 2006 she said all four children were severely disabled and that her husband was reliant on her care, boosting the payments to more than £15,000 a year.
She also pretended she was supporting her family by working as a temp, enabling her to claim £18,000 for non-existent childcare.
Even after she was caught, McKnight continued to cheat the system, making false claims for housing and council tax benefits two days after being arrested.
Now she faces jail after admitting tax credit fraud. She is due to appear at Wolverhampton magistrates’ court today for sentencing.
Mike O’Grady, assistant director of criminal investigation for HM Revenue and Customs, said:
However, in this case there were plenty of warning signs, which any slightly adequate screening system would have flagged. This doesn't cost £900m, it is absolutely basic.
But no, they kept lobbing out the money.
Then HMRC have the nerve to suggest that she was "found out". She was only "found out" because a taxpayer shopped her.
HMRC didn't do their job.
So let's give them another £900m from taxpayers.
Jayne McKnight, 45, pretended her four children aged ten to 25 had epilepsy and severe learning difficulties. In fact just one was epileptic.
All four children epileptic but no one even took a look?
She said her husband David, 47, had gout and could not work, when he too was perfectly healthy and worked as a van driver.
She spent the cash on concert tickets and backstage passes, touring the country to meet her celebrity idols.
She posed for pictures with dozens of stars including Susan Boyle, Ronan Keating and the late Stephen Gately from Boyzone, and posted them on her social networking pages, describing them as ‘my famous mates’.
You have to wonder how they managed at home.
She followed other boy bands including Westlife, JLS and The Wanted on tour, persuading them to pose for a shot with her or her daughters, Samantha, 17, and Melissa, ten.
Ah. Presumably during the school holidays?
She travelled around the country to dozens of X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent auditions to meet contestants such as Alexandra Burke.
McKnight splashed out on flat-screen TVs, Xbox gaming consoles, hi-fi equipment and laptops for herself and the children, but investigators believe most of the cash went on tickets because McKnight said she was ‘happiest when at a gig’.
And the family never asked where the money came from?
Initially she claimed in 2003 that just one of her children, who genuinely suffered from epilepsy, was severely disabled, pocketing £3,900 a year in child tax credits.
From 2006 she said all four children were severely disabled and that her husband was reliant on her care, boosting the payments to more than £15,000 a year.
She also pretended she was supporting her family by working as a temp, enabling her to claim £18,000 for non-existent childcare.
The swindle was uncovered when investigators received a tip-off.
Even after she was caught, McKnight continued to cheat the system, making false claims for housing and council tax benefits two days after being arrested.
Investigators discovered that she had been convicted for family credit and income support fraud in 2000 when she was given a seven-year suspended sentence for four fraud offences and 127 others.
Now she faces jail after admitting tax credit fraud. She is due to appear at Wolverhampton magistrates’ court today for sentencing.
Mike O’Grady, assistant director of criminal investigation for HM Revenue and Customs, said:
Between 2003 and 2010 Jayne McKnight consistently lied about her circumstances, knowing full well that this would increase the amount of money she was awarded.(Only because she was shopped.)
She probably thought she would never be found out, but she was wrong.
We are investing £900million in our drive against fraud, be that tax avoidance, evasion or criminal attack, and we will investigate suspicious claims and pursue fraudsters. We have a duty, the ability and the determination to do so.Gordon Brown's centralised tax credits system was never fit for purpose.
However, in this case there were plenty of warning signs, which any slightly adequate screening system would have flagged. This doesn't cost £900m, it is absolutely basic.
But no, they kept lobbing out the money.
Then HMRC have the nerve to suggest that she was "found out". She was only "found out" because a taxpayer shopped her.
HMRC didn't do their job.
So let's give them another £900m from taxpayers.
Sentencing for benefit theft
A thief stole nearly £9,000 from his employer. Sentence: eight months in prison.
What would a benefit thief get for stealing £9,000 from taxpayers?
What would a benefit thief get for stealing £9,000 from taxpayers?
21 May 2011
Romanians' self-employment benefit scam
On a windy street corner in Bradford, a woman wears a lacy black headscarf and touts copies of The Big Issue, the magazine sold by the homeless.
She has travelled 40 miles across the Pennines from Manchester, where she lives with her eight children, to sell as many copies as possible at £2 each.
But all is not as it seems. For 32-year-old Contessa Calinescu is a Romanian gypsy and is not homeless. In fact, she was driven to Bradford from Manchester, where the rent on her home is paid by taxpayers via welfare payments. She also claims nearly £500 a month in benefits for her large brood of children.
Like hundreds of other Roma women, she is exploiting a loophole in the law, in order to claim huge amounts of benefits.
Romanians who have migrated to Britain are restricted from claiming benefits — unlike other East European nations which joined the EU three years earlier.
But in a sophisticated scam, many Romanians have circumvented the system by claiming to be ‘self-employed’ Big Issue sellers — a status which entitles them to a National Insurance number and to claim the full panoply of welfare benefits, such as rent payments, council tax rebates and child benefits.
According to the Department of Work and Pensions’ website, Romanians working ‘in a self-employed capacity’ can claim housing and council tax benefit and child benefits.
As a result, Romanians are gleefully exploiting our generosity. A migrant advice organisation states: ‘The easiest way for Romanians to get access to the benefits system is to become self-employed.’
The result is that Romanian gypsies see Britain as the perfect destination as they try to escape poverty and discrimination in their home country.
They are doing nothing illegal. Even those who sell only a few copies of The Big Issue are entitled to tap into welfare benefits, and scores of them rake in huge amounts of state aid which they send back to Romania.
As a result, one particular town, Tandarei, has been transformed from a dusty outpost 100 miles from the capital Bucharest to a prosperous community full of new houses, BMWs and Land Rovers.
Indeed, some of the homes (painted garish colours and looking somewhat incongruous in a part of the world where farmers still use horse-drawn carts) are so swish that they have been likened to Beverly Hills.
Scotland Yard believes that more than 100 of the homes in an area dubbed ‘Benefits Boulevard’ have been built with the proceeds of money earned either illegally or through welfare scams in Britain.
This week, the scale of the problem was exposed when a gang of Romanian gypsies — some of whom own a brand new house in Tandarei — was jailed after fraudulently obtaining more than £800,000 in a sophisticated scam which a judge at Southwark Crown Court described as a ‘flagrant’ attack on our benefits system.
Gang members made regular budget flights to Britain, where they used forged Home Office residency documents and fake job references to obtain National Insurance numbers, and enabling them to claim tax credits, income support, child benefits and housing handouts.
They also used bogus birth certificates and photos of children who either did not exist or were victims of child-trafficking to illegally rake in child benefit.
Much of the money was funnelled back to Tandarei, where many more £500,000 houses are under construction. British-registered vehicles are everywhere.
Four mansions, in a property portfolio worth nearly £2 million, are believed to belong to the Radu family, who were jailed at Southwark Crown Court this week. It will now be some time before they are released and are able to return to the salmon pink-painted three and four-storey villas, with their manicured lawns, balconies and a porch.
Although this gang was not involved in the Big Issue scam, the case demonstrates how Romanian migrants are using a variety of tricks to abuse the system.
The Big Issue is sold by an estimated 3,000 people in Britain, with 40 per cent of sellers in the North believed to be Romanian gypsies.
Meanwhile, genuinely homeless Britons are finding it increasingly hard to sell the magazine, which was first published to help the homeless get a meagre weekly income and the chance to better their lives.
The system works by people buying copies for £1 each to sell at £2, and keeping the profit. But while British-born poor often can only afford to buy a few copies at a time, Romanian gangsters ‘block buy’ copies for cash at Big Issue distribution depots.
These are then handed to Roma to sell on streets all over Britain, with the profits being returned to the gangmasters.
Every morning, Roma women are driven to town centres across the country — from Keswick in Cumbria to Bath in Somerset. One thousand magazines bought at £1 each and sold for £2 means £1,000 in profit every day can go to their ‘handlers’.
The money is then passed to the Mr Bigs, who wire or take it back personally to Romania.
As for the Roma who sell the magazine, by declaring themselves to be ‘self-employed’, they are entitled to welfare payments.
According to Simon Ashley, a councillor in Manchester, which has a 2,000-strong Roma community: ‘These people aren’t homeless — they live in houses. But the legal loophole allows them to have access to benefits as well as selling copies of Big Issue. Some get £21,000 a year in benefits, which is more than the average wage of a real worker.’
One criminal case that exposed the scandal involved a woman working for a Roma charity in London who set up a consultancy to help newly-arrived gypsies become Big Issue sellers. A police investigation led to Lavinia Olmazu being jailed for assisting 172 Roma to fraudulently claim a total of £2.9 million in benefits.
Her scam was simple. For an £80 fee, she provided fake ‘letters of recommendation’ to the Government’s Revenue & Customs offices declaring that the Big Issue sellers ran their own businesses and were, therefore, self-employed and able to obtain national insurance numbers.
Meanwhile, in Slough, newly-arrived Roma migrants have become Big Issue sellers and then registered as self-employed to get benefits.
A 22-year-old called Silvo said: ‘I can call on 100 of my friends and family living nearby to sell the Big Issue. We are very busy on the weekends.
‘We get money to pay our rents from the council because our business is now “selling”. We send money back to Tandarei, our town in Romania.’
Roma sellers of The Big Issue can be spotted every day in Leeds, Birmingham, Oxford, London and Bristol, and smaller towns in the North and the Home Counties. Many do not speak English, even though this is supposed to be a prerequisite of being a Big Issue vendor.
Back in Bradford, mother-of-eight Contessa says: ‘I came to your country four years ago to find work. I get by selling the Big Issue and I receive benefits to care for my children. My friend has the car and brings me over from Manchester for the selling every week.’
In London, Lina Petrea, 43, has been a Big Issue seller for a year. Her pitch is outside the Holland & Barrett store in Upper Street, Islington. She says she lives in North London with seven other Romanians, five of whom sell The Big Issue.
‘By selling Big Issue, I get a National Insurance registration as self-employed. When you don’t speak good in your language, all you can do is sell The Big Issue.’
In nearby Holborn, 30-year-old Marinella has been selling The Big Issue for eight months. Every day, the mother-of-two gets the bus from Ilford, Essex, to her pitch. ‘The Big Issue helps me feed my daughters,’ she says. ‘But there are too many Romanians selling the magazine now. The competition makes it difficult for all of us to make money.’
The Big Issue organisation sees nothing wrong with the Roma sellers becoming self-employed to get state assistance. Elizabeth Price, director of Big Issue in the North, says: ‘We understand that these benefits are seen by some as a loophole, but the fact is, as Big Issue vendors, these people are permitted to be self-employed and so are entitled to those payments.’
However, British-born homeless are losing out. Gary Johnson, 39, originally from Liverpool, is a Big Issue seller in Birmingham city centre. He says: ‘These Romanians buy up loads of magazines in one go. It is far more than I could afford, and it means there are not any left for the truly homeless.
‘It looks like big business to me. They don’t need the money and they’re not homeless. They are given accommodation far more easily than most people because they have lots of children.’
In Oxford, a Big Issue seller called Jim said that every Monday he watches two Romanian businessmen buy between 800 and 1,000 copies of the magazine at a nearby depot.
‘Romanian businessmen are making a huge profit from getting their women to sell the Big Issue magazine. Two men I know spend a grand a week, but will make double that when women from their community sell them on to the public for £2.’
Although a spokesman for Big Issue says the organisation is aware of the issue, it is ironic that the magazine’s founder, John Bird, has declared war on welfare cheats, asking the Government to tighten the system.
‘It makes me laugh how some people on benefits seem to know every single one of their rights — but none of their responsibilities,’ he has said.
Such a view perfectly describes the Roma gypsy people who blatantly use his magazine to milk our welfare state, deprive the real homeless and have spawned a huge criminal industry.
She has travelled 40 miles across the Pennines from Manchester, where she lives with her eight children, to sell as many copies as possible at £2 each.
But all is not as it seems. For 32-year-old Contessa Calinescu is a Romanian gypsy and is not homeless. In fact, she was driven to Bradford from Manchester, where the rent on her home is paid by taxpayers via welfare payments. She also claims nearly £500 a month in benefits for her large brood of children.
Like hundreds of other Roma women, she is exploiting a loophole in the law, in order to claim huge amounts of benefits.
Romanians who have migrated to Britain are restricted from claiming benefits — unlike other East European nations which joined the EU three years earlier.
But in a sophisticated scam, many Romanians have circumvented the system by claiming to be ‘self-employed’ Big Issue sellers — a status which entitles them to a National Insurance number and to claim the full panoply of welfare benefits, such as rent payments, council tax rebates and child benefits.
According to the Department of Work and Pensions’ website, Romanians working ‘in a self-employed capacity’ can claim housing and council tax benefit and child benefits.
As a result, Romanians are gleefully exploiting our generosity. A migrant advice organisation states: ‘The easiest way for Romanians to get access to the benefits system is to become self-employed.’
The result is that Romanian gypsies see Britain as the perfect destination as they try to escape poverty and discrimination in their home country.
They are doing nothing illegal. Even those who sell only a few copies of The Big Issue are entitled to tap into welfare benefits, and scores of them rake in huge amounts of state aid which they send back to Romania.
As a result, one particular town, Tandarei, has been transformed from a dusty outpost 100 miles from the capital Bucharest to a prosperous community full of new houses, BMWs and Land Rovers.
Indeed, some of the homes (painted garish colours and looking somewhat incongruous in a part of the world where farmers still use horse-drawn carts) are so swish that they have been likened to Beverly Hills.
Scotland Yard believes that more than 100 of the homes in an area dubbed ‘Benefits Boulevard’ have been built with the proceeds of money earned either illegally or through welfare scams in Britain.
This week, the scale of the problem was exposed when a gang of Romanian gypsies — some of whom own a brand new house in Tandarei — was jailed after fraudulently obtaining more than £800,000 in a sophisticated scam which a judge at Southwark Crown Court described as a ‘flagrant’ attack on our benefits system.
Gang members made regular budget flights to Britain, where they used forged Home Office residency documents and fake job references to obtain National Insurance numbers, and enabling them to claim tax credits, income support, child benefits and housing handouts.
They also used bogus birth certificates and photos of children who either did not exist or were victims of child-trafficking to illegally rake in child benefit.
Much of the money was funnelled back to Tandarei, where many more £500,000 houses are under construction. British-registered vehicles are everywhere.
Four mansions, in a property portfolio worth nearly £2 million, are believed to belong to the Radu family, who were jailed at Southwark Crown Court this week. It will now be some time before they are released and are able to return to the salmon pink-painted three and four-storey villas, with their manicured lawns, balconies and a porch.
Although this gang was not involved in the Big Issue scam, the case demonstrates how Romanian migrants are using a variety of tricks to abuse the system.
The Big Issue is sold by an estimated 3,000 people in Britain, with 40 per cent of sellers in the North believed to be Romanian gypsies.
Meanwhile, genuinely homeless Britons are finding it increasingly hard to sell the magazine, which was first published to help the homeless get a meagre weekly income and the chance to better their lives.
The system works by people buying copies for £1 each to sell at £2, and keeping the profit. But while British-born poor often can only afford to buy a few copies at a time, Romanian gangsters ‘block buy’ copies for cash at Big Issue distribution depots.
These are then handed to Roma to sell on streets all over Britain, with the profits being returned to the gangmasters.
Every morning, Roma women are driven to town centres across the country — from Keswick in Cumbria to Bath in Somerset. One thousand magazines bought at £1 each and sold for £2 means £1,000 in profit every day can go to their ‘handlers’.
The money is then passed to the Mr Bigs, who wire or take it back personally to Romania.
As for the Roma who sell the magazine, by declaring themselves to be ‘self-employed’, they are entitled to welfare payments.
According to Simon Ashley, a councillor in Manchester, which has a 2,000-strong Roma community: ‘These people aren’t homeless — they live in houses. But the legal loophole allows them to have access to benefits as well as selling copies of Big Issue. Some get £21,000 a year in benefits, which is more than the average wage of a real worker.’
One criminal case that exposed the scandal involved a woman working for a Roma charity in London who set up a consultancy to help newly-arrived gypsies become Big Issue sellers. A police investigation led to Lavinia Olmazu being jailed for assisting 172 Roma to fraudulently claim a total of £2.9 million in benefits.
Her scam was simple. For an £80 fee, she provided fake ‘letters of recommendation’ to the Government’s Revenue & Customs offices declaring that the Big Issue sellers ran their own businesses and were, therefore, self-employed and able to obtain national insurance numbers.
Meanwhile, in Slough, newly-arrived Roma migrants have become Big Issue sellers and then registered as self-employed to get benefits.
A 22-year-old called Silvo said: ‘I can call on 100 of my friends and family living nearby to sell the Big Issue. We are very busy on the weekends.
‘We get money to pay our rents from the council because our business is now “selling”. We send money back to Tandarei, our town in Romania.’
Roma sellers of The Big Issue can be spotted every day in Leeds, Birmingham, Oxford, London and Bristol, and smaller towns in the North and the Home Counties. Many do not speak English, even though this is supposed to be a prerequisite of being a Big Issue vendor.
Back in Bradford, mother-of-eight Contessa says: ‘I came to your country four years ago to find work. I get by selling the Big Issue and I receive benefits to care for my children. My friend has the car and brings me over from Manchester for the selling every week.’
In London, Lina Petrea, 43, has been a Big Issue seller for a year. Her pitch is outside the Holland & Barrett store in Upper Street, Islington. She says she lives in North London with seven other Romanians, five of whom sell The Big Issue.
‘By selling Big Issue, I get a National Insurance registration as self-employed. When you don’t speak good in your language, all you can do is sell The Big Issue.’
In nearby Holborn, 30-year-old Marinella has been selling The Big Issue for eight months. Every day, the mother-of-two gets the bus from Ilford, Essex, to her pitch. ‘The Big Issue helps me feed my daughters,’ she says. ‘But there are too many Romanians selling the magazine now. The competition makes it difficult for all of us to make money.’
The Big Issue organisation sees nothing wrong with the Roma sellers becoming self-employed to get state assistance. Elizabeth Price, director of Big Issue in the North, says: ‘We understand that these benefits are seen by some as a loophole, but the fact is, as Big Issue vendors, these people are permitted to be self-employed and so are entitled to those payments.’
However, British-born homeless are losing out. Gary Johnson, 39, originally from Liverpool, is a Big Issue seller in Birmingham city centre. He says: ‘These Romanians buy up loads of magazines in one go. It is far more than I could afford, and it means there are not any left for the truly homeless.
‘It looks like big business to me. They don’t need the money and they’re not homeless. They are given accommodation far more easily than most people because they have lots of children.’
In Oxford, a Big Issue seller called Jim said that every Monday he watches two Romanian businessmen buy between 800 and 1,000 copies of the magazine at a nearby depot.
‘Romanian businessmen are making a huge profit from getting their women to sell the Big Issue magazine. Two men I know spend a grand a week, but will make double that when women from their community sell them on to the public for £2.’
Although a spokesman for Big Issue says the organisation is aware of the issue, it is ironic that the magazine’s founder, John Bird, has declared war on welfare cheats, asking the Government to tighten the system.
‘It makes me laugh how some people on benefits seem to know every single one of their rights — but none of their responsibilities,’ he has said.
Such a view perfectly describes the Roma gypsy people who blatantly use his magazine to milk our welfare state, deprive the real homeless and have spawned a huge criminal industry.
20 May 2011
From the front line - journalists, please note
This anonymous comment appeared under an earlier post.
Anyone who reads this story and believes its a 'unique' case needs - very much - to think again!
As a benefit fraud investigator, I had many cases where enquiries led to claimants living abroad whilst claiming; them owning foreign properties to boot and saw ample opportunity for management to seek Orders to seize the 'spoils' of their crimes.
Unfortunately, lack of police assistance; management disinterest or enthusiasm ("we get exactly the same tick in the box for a pension fraud; so why go to all the trouble of investigating/chasing foreign properties?") and lack of support for utilising readily available legal remedies gave me a nervous breakdown and I haven't worked since! Interestingly, the large-scale fraud cases I worked on have never surfaced as publicised prosecutions so a) either the frauds continue or b) investigations have been closed!
This country has become a joke for benefit fraud; and any decent investigator who tries to do something positive about it finds themselves either "knuckling down' to management 'tick-box' mentality and inertia; going mad with frustration at not being allowed (or supported) to do their job or getting out with sanity (just) intact!
For a long time, kids kidnapped and utilised to claim benefits and council properties in this country has been widely known about; add to that the fact that so many people in this country - in full possession of NI cards, passports and benefits - aren't even who they say they are, and its little wonder benefit fraud is set to get even worse.
This country's crumbling under the weight of this huge responsibility yet does LITTLE or NOTHING to ensure there's encouragement (rather than fear and trepidation) to retrieve what has been stolen from it.
Laughingly, the fraudsters here will soak-up more tax-payers money during their imprisonment; and are (almost guaranteed) to be back in the country (with a new identity) and doing exactly the same thing all over again, once their 'time' is done.
I'd like to spend just an hour with David Cameron to explain the investigations I worked on. He'd then surely see the futility of the means currently used to 'crack' benefit fraud that can only ensure it will get worse!
"It's not if the Government finally wises-up to the huge profits to be made from benefit fraud; it’s when!"
Fraud checks in Lincoln
Over 200 cases of possible housing benefit fraud were investigated by City of Lincoln Council in the past year, according to figures obtained by The Lincolnite.
There are around 11,000 housing benefit claimants in Lincoln.
Out of the 203 investigations for 2010/11, 71 individuals were sanctioned: 24 were convicted of fraud, 21 given administration penalty charges, and 26 given cautions.
The number of council investigations into possible housing benefit fraud has dropped significantly.
In 2009/10, 320 cases were investigated, resulting in 81 sanctions. Some Lincolnites have also been caught out for evading Council Tax.
For 2010/11, 236 people in the city had their Single Person Discount removed, generating £58,000 for the council purse in additional Council Tax revenue.
Last week Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, published ten tips for local councils on tackling council fraud.
The government estimates that fraud costs British councils £2 billon per year.
John Scott, Audit Manager at the City of Lincoln Council, said: “The national guidelines are considered best practice and the council has either addressed or is reviewing the areas outlined within the ten point plan compiled for Eric Pickles by the National Fraud Authority.
“We actively manage the council’s key fraud risks, including Housing Benefit fraud and Council Tax evasion.
“We have a specialist Housing Benefit fraud investigation team, an internal audit team and we also work in partnership with the County Council’s specialist Counter Fraud Team to prevent and detect fraud.”
There are around 11,000 housing benefit claimants in Lincoln.
Out of the 203 investigations for 2010/11, 71 individuals were sanctioned: 24 were convicted of fraud, 21 given administration penalty charges, and 26 given cautions.
The number of council investigations into possible housing benefit fraud has dropped significantly.
In 2009/10, 320 cases were investigated, resulting in 81 sanctions. Some Lincolnites have also been caught out for evading Council Tax.
For 2010/11, 236 people in the city had their Single Person Discount removed, generating £58,000 for the council purse in additional Council Tax revenue.
Last week Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, published ten tips for local councils on tackling council fraud.
The government estimates that fraud costs British councils £2 billon per year.
John Scott, Audit Manager at the City of Lincoln Council, said: “The national guidelines are considered best practice and the council has either addressed or is reviewing the areas outlined within the ten point plan compiled for Eric Pickles by the National Fraud Authority.
“We actively manage the council’s key fraud risks, including Housing Benefit fraud and Council Tax evasion.
“We have a specialist Housing Benefit fraud investigation team, an internal audit team and we also work in partnership with the County Council’s specialist Counter Fraud Team to prevent and detect fraud.”
Repeat criminal made hay with benefits
Timothy Harris was a recidivist criminal. He was receiving several benefits. Yet surprise surprise, he was working cash in hand and failed to volunteer that his medical condition had improved. In January 2008 he was involved in a "violent rampage" ... and in May 2011 the DWP finally got round to prosecuting him.
Here's the story.
A benefit cheat who was caught on CCTV in a new year brawl with police, despite claiming he could not leave home without a walking stick, has been jailed for 15 months.
Timothy Harris, 46, from Northampton, told benefit officials he could not leave home without a walking stick after a wall fell on him.
But he was captured on CCTV at around 3am on January 1, 2008, on a violent rampage around Northampton town centre lasting more than 15 minutes, Northampton Crown Court heard.
A prosecution of that incident, for which he received a suspended sentence, led to an investigation by the Department of Work and Pensions.
The probe found that between January 2006 and November 2010, Harris fraudulently claimed Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.
The court heard he failed to declare a change in his circumstances and was found to have received £54,729 cash which he did not declare.
He also claimed Disability Living Allowance, claiming he could hardly walk - yet was spotted on CCTV during the January 2008 incident fighting, running and jogging, the court heard.
The total loss to the public purse was £21,438, the court was told.
Harris pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to notify a change of circumstances previously.
He was also sentenced for breach of a suspended sentence handed to him for the New Year's Day affray, and a charge of possession of cocaine on another occasion.
The total sentence was 15 months in jail.
Judge Richard Bray told him: 'I have to sentence you first for social security fraud.
'You received a total of £21,000 by fraud. I appreciate that these claims were not fraudulent from the outset.
'However, there are two aggravating features. These offences you committed over a lengthy period of time and in various forms.
'Secondly and most importantly, you had been claiming disability allowance on the basis that you had an injury that made it almost impossible for you to walk.
'In fact, you were caught on CCTV in the midst of an affray on the street after drinking and taking drugs where you were seen to be running about and taking part in the affray.'
Earlier in the hearing, the judge said: 'If you start claiming benefits on the basis that you can hardly walk and you are busy seen running up the street, that is an outrageous fraud on the social security and should be measured as such.'
Rashad Mohammed, prosecuting, said the Department for Work and Pensions had been alerted to the fraud by police after the investigation into the affray.
He said Harris started claiming benefits towards the end of 2003.
'The Income Support was paid on the basis that he was not working and was a lone parent,' he told the court.
'The Disability Living Allowance was paid at a high rate which is usually paid to people who are either unable to walk or virtually unable to walk.
He said between 2006 and 2009 Harris received £54,729 which he failed to declare, which worked out at an average of about £212 per week.
He said the CCTV footage from January 1, 2008, also showed Harris' condition had considerably improved.
Mr Mohammed told the court that in interview Harris admitted to police that he had taken cocaine that night and was drunk.
He told officers the money he had received had come from insurance and personal injury payouts from car accidents.
The court heard Harris had 11 convictions for 23 offences, stretching back to 1984, which included drugs, dishonesty and violence.
He was found on May 6 last year in the passenger seat of a car with two bags of the substance.
A search of his car, which was parked next to the one he was in, found more of the drug, and Harris later pleaded guilty.
Gary Short, mitigating, said the 46-year-old had developed a 'firmly established pattern' of crime during the 80s and 90s.
Harris was jailed for five years in 1999 for manslaughter,
Mr Short said the 46-year-old moved away from his friends and associates on his release but then developed a cocaine habit, which he has now kicked.
'In terms of the benefit fraud I have very little to say about that save this - he made effective admission in interview stating that he had been working for cash whilst claiming benefits.'
Here's the story.
A benefit cheat who was caught on CCTV in a new year brawl with police, despite claiming he could not leave home without a walking stick, has been jailed for 15 months.
Timothy Harris, 46, from Northampton, told benefit officials he could not leave home without a walking stick after a wall fell on him.
But he was captured on CCTV at around 3am on January 1, 2008, on a violent rampage around Northampton town centre lasting more than 15 minutes, Northampton Crown Court heard.
A prosecution of that incident, for which he received a suspended sentence, led to an investigation by the Department of Work and Pensions.
The probe found that between January 2006 and November 2010, Harris fraudulently claimed Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.
The court heard he failed to declare a change in his circumstances and was found to have received £54,729 cash which he did not declare.
He also claimed Disability Living Allowance, claiming he could hardly walk - yet was spotted on CCTV during the January 2008 incident fighting, running and jogging, the court heard.
The total loss to the public purse was £21,438, the court was told.
Harris pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to notify a change of circumstances previously.
He was also sentenced for breach of a suspended sentence handed to him for the New Year's Day affray, and a charge of possession of cocaine on another occasion.
The total sentence was 15 months in jail.
Judge Richard Bray told him: 'I have to sentence you first for social security fraud.
'You received a total of £21,000 by fraud. I appreciate that these claims were not fraudulent from the outset.
'However, there are two aggravating features. These offences you committed over a lengthy period of time and in various forms.
'Secondly and most importantly, you had been claiming disability allowance on the basis that you had an injury that made it almost impossible for you to walk.
'In fact, you were caught on CCTV in the midst of an affray on the street after drinking and taking drugs where you were seen to be running about and taking part in the affray.'
Earlier in the hearing, the judge said: 'If you start claiming benefits on the basis that you can hardly walk and you are busy seen running up the street, that is an outrageous fraud on the social security and should be measured as such.'
Rashad Mohammed, prosecuting, said the Department for Work and Pensions had been alerted to the fraud by police after the investigation into the affray.
He said Harris started claiming benefits towards the end of 2003.
'The Income Support was paid on the basis that he was not working and was a lone parent,' he told the court.
'The Disability Living Allowance was paid at a high rate which is usually paid to people who are either unable to walk or virtually unable to walk.
He said between 2006 and 2009 Harris received £54,729 which he failed to declare, which worked out at an average of about £212 per week.
He said the CCTV footage from January 1, 2008, also showed Harris' condition had considerably improved.
Mr Mohammed told the court that in interview Harris admitted to police that he had taken cocaine that night and was drunk.
He told officers the money he had received had come from insurance and personal injury payouts from car accidents.
The court heard Harris had 11 convictions for 23 offences, stretching back to 1984, which included drugs, dishonesty and violence.
He was found on May 6 last year in the passenger seat of a car with two bags of the substance.
A search of his car, which was parked next to the one he was in, found more of the drug, and Harris later pleaded guilty.
Gary Short, mitigating, said the 46-year-old had developed a 'firmly established pattern' of crime during the 80s and 90s.
Harris was jailed for five years in 1999 for manslaughter,
Mr Short said the 46-year-old moved away from his friends and associates on his release but then developed a cocaine habit, which he has now kicked.
'In terms of the benefit fraud I have very little to say about that save this - he made effective admission in interview stating that he had been working for cash whilst claiming benefits.'
19 May 2011
"Benefit cut is act of disability discrimination"
This is the theme of an opinion piece in the Huddersfield Daily Examiner.
There's some special pleading here.
The writer's main thrust is the implication that benefits for the disabled are being cut. Are they?
But the big number that stands out in the report is a very big number - "there are about 500,000 people in the UK whose disability benefits are being targeted by the Government under the Welfare Reform Bill".
Is it not right for many of these disabilities to be checked from time to time? I'm not talking here of disabilities which are certain to last a lifetime ... but with half a million people receiving these benefits, the interests of taxpayers have to be protected too.
The testing régime has to be fair. Fair to each disabled person, and fair to taxpayers too.
There's some special pleading here.
Just one example of the subtle way in which discrimination against the disabled is exercised is the Blue Badge parking system.Having set up his straw man, the writer points out that "in fact the abusers fall into two major groups – those who use stolen or forged badges, and relatives or friends of a disabled person using them when the disabled person entitled to use it is not in the car and not being picked up by the able-bodied driver". As we knew.
Last week Communities Minister Eric Pickles announced a clampdown on Blue Badge ‘abuse’, which he believes to be widespread.
The connection we are allowed to make here is that the disabled are the ones who are abusing the system.
The writer's main thrust is the implication that benefits for the disabled are being cut. Are they?
But the big number that stands out in the report is a very big number - "there are about 500,000 people in the UK whose disability benefits are being targeted by the Government under the Welfare Reform Bill".
Is it not right for many of these disabilities to be checked from time to time? I'm not talking here of disabilities which are certain to last a lifetime ... but with half a million people receiving these benefits, the interests of taxpayers have to be protected too.
The testing régime has to be fair. Fair to each disabled person, and fair to taxpayers too.
Romanian homes in Tandarei
As a postscript to the previous story, The Sun has pictures of some family homes in Romania.
Tiny sentences for huge international fraud
A family of professional benefit cheats who made regular flights into Britain to collect state handouts was jailed yesterday.
The Romany gypsy gang – also suspected to have been involved in a child-trafficking ring – swindled taxpayers out of more than £800,000 in a ‘flagrant and persistent’ attack on the benefits system.
Some members were based in Britain while others flew in from Romania to collect tax credits, income support, child benefits and housing benefit.
They used forged Home Office documents and job references to obtain National Insurance numbers illegally before applying for payments.
Several fraudsters made claims under two aliases and were said to have boosted payments even further by inventing children, using photographs of other youngsters.
The judge noted ‘the possibility that the children are the subject of child-trafficking and are not your own’, although the defendants denied this.
The family was traced to the town of Tandarei, in eastern Romania, a notorious base for crime gangs whose tentacles reach across western Europe.
Sentencing the gang at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Gregory Stone said they were responsible for a ‘large-scale’ and ‘professionally planned’ fraud.
Nine members of the gang, who lived in Nottingham, Birmingham and Liverpool, as well as Romania, were jailed yesterday after they admitted a string of fraud charges.
Ringleader Telus Dumitru, 36, was jailed for four years and eight months. His wife Ramona, 33, was sentenced to two years. Her sister Claudia Radu, 35, who was arrested at Stansted Airport after flying in to pick up her latest handouts, was jailed for six months.
Their father Ion Stoica, 56, who had made repeated benefits claims while living in Romania, was also jailed for six months. Claudia’s brother-in-law Adrian Radu, 33, was jailed for 12 months.
Marian Gheorghe, 34, was jailed for two years and four months, Dorina Dumitru, 38, for one year and eight months and Ion Lincan, 35, for four weeks.
Corrupt British construction boss Abdel Lemsatef, 66, was jailed for nine months after he admitted supplying Dumitru with forged job references that enabled the gang to obtain National Insurance numbers.
Romania joined the European Union in January 2007, meaning all citizens can travel to Britain as tourists. However there are restrictions on the jobs they can take and the benefits they can claim.
The Romany gypsy gang – also suspected to have been involved in a child-trafficking ring – swindled taxpayers out of more than £800,000 in a ‘flagrant and persistent’ attack on the benefits system.
Some members were based in Britain while others flew in from Romania to collect tax credits, income support, child benefits and housing benefit.
They used forged Home Office documents and job references to obtain National Insurance numbers illegally before applying for payments.
Several fraudsters made claims under two aliases and were said to have boosted payments even further by inventing children, using photographs of other youngsters.
The judge noted ‘the possibility that the children are the subject of child-trafficking and are not your own’, although the defendants denied this.
The family was traced to the town of Tandarei, in eastern Romania, a notorious base for crime gangs whose tentacles reach across western Europe.
Sentencing the gang at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Gregory Stone said they were responsible for a ‘large-scale’ and ‘professionally planned’ fraud.
Nine members of the gang, who lived in Nottingham, Birmingham and Liverpool, as well as Romania, were jailed yesterday after they admitted a string of fraud charges.
Ringleader Telus Dumitru, 36, was jailed for four years and eight months. His wife Ramona, 33, was sentenced to two years. Her sister Claudia Radu, 35, who was arrested at Stansted Airport after flying in to pick up her latest handouts, was jailed for six months.
Their father Ion Stoica, 56, who had made repeated benefits claims while living in Romania, was also jailed for six months. Claudia’s brother-in-law Adrian Radu, 33, was jailed for 12 months.
Marian Gheorghe, 34, was jailed for two years and four months, Dorina Dumitru, 38, for one year and eight months and Ion Lincan, 35, for four weeks.
Corrupt British construction boss Abdel Lemsatef, 66, was jailed for nine months after he admitted supplying Dumitru with forged job references that enabled the gang to obtain National Insurance numbers.
Romania joined the European Union in January 2007, meaning all citizens can travel to Britain as tourists. However there are restrictions on the jobs they can take and the benefits they can claim.
18 May 2011
Anglesey reviews council tax discounts
Anglesey is one of the County Councils across North and Mid Wales who are working together to undertake a review of cases where the household receives a 25% single person discount on their Council Tax, say the council.
The exercise is part of a joint working initiative across the region, and is taking place in conjunction with Northgate Information Solutions UK Ltd, who specialise in this type of review.
Northgate will work with each participating Council and Experian, a credit reference agency, using the latest data matching technology, to confirm the discount for genuine claimants and to identify people who are claiming a 25% single persons discount on their Council Tax when they aren't entitled to it.
The full Council Tax bill assumes that there are two adults living in a property. If only one adult lives in the property (as their main home) the bill may be reduced by 25%.
Geraint Jones, Revenues and Benefits Manager at the Isle of Anglesey County Council said, "Whilst the vast majority of these residents are claiming the discount correctly, there may be cases where we haven't been informed about a change in household occupancy, which affects the reduction, or a false claim has deliberately been made. Where incorrect claims are identified, we will be ending the claims and seeking to reclaim the discount from an appropriate date. In more serious cases, we may decide to prosecute for fraudulently claiming a Single Person Discount."
The exercise is part of a joint working initiative across the region, and is taking place in conjunction with Northgate Information Solutions UK Ltd, who specialise in this type of review.
Northgate will work with each participating Council and Experian, a credit reference agency, using the latest data matching technology, to confirm the discount for genuine claimants and to identify people who are claiming a 25% single persons discount on their Council Tax when they aren't entitled to it.
The full Council Tax bill assumes that there are two adults living in a property. If only one adult lives in the property (as their main home) the bill may be reduced by 25%.
At present, over 137,000 residents - one in three households - claim the single person discount across North and Mid Wales.
Geraint Jones, Revenues and Benefits Manager at the Isle of Anglesey County Council said, "Whilst the vast majority of these residents are claiming the discount correctly, there may be cases where we haven't been informed about a change in household occupancy, which affects the reduction, or a false claim has deliberately been made. Where incorrect claims are identified, we will be ending the claims and seeking to reclaim the discount from an appropriate date. In more serious cases, we may decide to prosecute for fraudulently claiming a Single Person Discount."
17 May 2011
Recidivist liar gets normal sentence
A Cheshunt man has been prosecuted by Broxbourne council for benefit fraud in excess of £16,000.
Trevor Hawkins attended Hertford Magistrates’ Court, where he faced the allegation of failing to declare a change of circumstances whicyh had an effect on his benefit entitlement.
Mr and Mrs Hawkins received benefits from both Broxbourne Council and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and failed to declare that they had started working for a delivery company in Harlow. Mr Hawkins was interviewed on two separate occasions by the council and DWP officers where he denied that he was in work, stating that regular amounts of money deposited into an undeclared bank account were his nephew’s wages.
Mr Hawkins pleaded guilty on April 18. The court noted that a large amount of money was involved and that the offence took place over an extended period. The court also noted that Mr Hawkins was cautioned for a previous benefit offence and sentenced him to two months imprisonment suspended for 12 months, with a condition that there be a supervision order for six months, and ordered him to pay costs of £350.
Trevor Hawkins attended Hertford Magistrates’ Court, where he faced the allegation of failing to declare a change of circumstances whicyh had an effect on his benefit entitlement.
Mr and Mrs Hawkins received benefits from both Broxbourne Council and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and failed to declare that they had started working for a delivery company in Harlow. Mr Hawkins was interviewed on two separate occasions by the council and DWP officers where he denied that he was in work, stating that regular amounts of money deposited into an undeclared bank account were his nephew’s wages.
Mr Hawkins pleaded guilty on April 18. The court noted that a large amount of money was involved and that the offence took place over an extended period. The court also noted that Mr Hawkins was cautioned for a previous benefit offence and sentenced him to two months imprisonment suspended for 12 months, with a condition that there be a supervision order for six months, and ordered him to pay costs of £350.
- The previous caution, and the lies he told in interview, don't seem to have made any difference to his sentence, though.
16 May 2011
No jail for £62k benefit theft mother of five
A mother of five who swindled £62,000 in benefits to pay for her husband's gambling addiction has avoided a jail term.
Tina Stevens, from Sanderstead, claimed she was a single parent when she had in fact been living with her husband, Paul, for four years.
The 44-year-old was caught after Croydon Council and the Department for Work and Pensions received an anonymous tip-off that led to her being investigated for fraud.
Stevens was sentenced by Croydon Crown Court to 10 months in jail, suspended for two years.
She was also ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work within 12 months.
Sentencing, Judge Stephen Waller said: "This was not dishonest from the beginning.
"But it went on for so long that a time must have come where you knew what you were doing was dishonest.
"It is clear that this money wasn't being frittered away by you on luxuries.
"Your personal circumstances have a lot to do with the situation which you have found yourself in."
At a previous hearing on April 8, the court heard Stevens originally claimed her husband only stayed at their home a few nights a week.
But she eventually admitted he was living there permanently and was working full time as a window fitter.
Under interview, she said she had continued to claim benefits after her husband moved in because of his gambling habits.
Stevens told the investigating officers: "I was scared I was going to lose my house.
"I had no money for the kids. There were weeks he (her husband) had no work.
"Then there were weeks he did have work but didn't get paid."
Stevens pleaded guilty to four charges relating to benefit fraud after falsely claiming for income support and council tax benefit.
The court heard she was slowly repaying the money she took but it was unlikely she would ever be able to give back the full amount.
Tina Stevens, from Sanderstead, claimed she was a single parent when she had in fact been living with her husband, Paul, for four years.
The 44-year-old was caught after Croydon Council and the Department for Work and Pensions received an anonymous tip-off that led to her being investigated for fraud.
Stevens was sentenced by Croydon Crown Court to 10 months in jail, suspended for two years.
She was also ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work within 12 months.
Sentencing, Judge Stephen Waller said: "This was not dishonest from the beginning.
"But it went on for so long that a time must have come where you knew what you were doing was dishonest.
"It is clear that this money wasn't being frittered away by you on luxuries.
"Your personal circumstances have a lot to do with the situation which you have found yourself in."
At a previous hearing on April 8, the court heard Stevens originally claimed her husband only stayed at their home a few nights a week.
But she eventually admitted he was living there permanently and was working full time as a window fitter.
Under interview, she said she had continued to claim benefits after her husband moved in because of his gambling habits.
Stevens told the investigating officers: "I was scared I was going to lose my house.
"I had no money for the kids. There were weeks he (her husband) had no work.
"Then there were weeks he did have work but didn't get paid."
Stevens pleaded guilty to four charges relating to benefit fraud after falsely claiming for income support and council tax benefit.
The court heard she was slowly repaying the money she took but it was unlikely she would ever be able to give back the full amount.
15 May 2011
Unexplained light sentence
She was the civil servant trusted with deciding who was genuinely disabled and in need of help.
But what the people she was passing judgment on did not know was that Susan Elliott-Jones was falsely claiming more than £8,000 in disability benefit herself.
Despite sitting on a disability benefits appeals panel, she lied to welfare officials that she was virtually unable to walk.
But officials acting on an anonymous tip filmed the 63-year-old walking briskly around a supermarket, shopping, bending, lifting and carrying items.
She was rumbled after investigators, filming over several weeks, captured her walking more than 250 yards and carrying heavy shopping bags without any difficulty.
Elliott-Jones, of Ingatestone, Essex, has pleaded guilty to failing to report a change in her circumstances. The civil servant claimed £8,399 in Disability Living Allowance between November 2007 and May 2010.
She was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £100 in costs at a court in Chelmsford on Tuesday.
The cheating mandarin had worked as a carer panel member of the Appeals Tribunal Service, dealing with DLA cases.
Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:
But what the people she was passing judgment on did not know was that Susan Elliott-Jones was falsely claiming more than £8,000 in disability benefit herself.
Despite sitting on a disability benefits appeals panel, she lied to welfare officials that she was virtually unable to walk.
But officials acting on an anonymous tip filmed the 63-year-old walking briskly around a supermarket, shopping, bending, lifting and carrying items.
She was rumbled after investigators, filming over several weeks, captured her walking more than 250 yards and carrying heavy shopping bags without any difficulty.
Elliott-Jones, of Ingatestone, Essex, has pleaded guilty to failing to report a change in her circumstances. The civil servant claimed £8,399 in Disability Living Allowance between November 2007 and May 2010.
She was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £100 in costs at a court in Chelmsford on Tuesday.
The cheating mandarin had worked as a carer panel member of the Appeals Tribunal Service, dealing with DLA cases.
Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:
Taxpayers will be furious that someone tasked with adjudicating over disability benefit claims was ripping them off with their own bogus claim.
Abuse of benefits like these is an insult to those genuinely in need and hard-pressed working families who pick up the bill.
Rigorous enforcement and serious penalties are essential.
Benefit thief jailed
A retired nurse who fraudulently claimed more than £37,000 in housing and council tax benefits has been sent to jail.
Joyce Cooke, 66, lied to authorities for almost a decade about an NHS pension which gave her an annual income of around £18,000.
Leeds Crown court heard Cooke even continued to work part-time in nursing after her retirement while claiming the benefits between 2000 and 2009.
She was jailed for four months after pleading guilty to false accounting.
A judge told her that despite her “exemplary” work history, he had to send her to jail.
Judge Alistair McCallum said: “If you chose to be so thoroughly dishonest over such a long period of time you cannot avoid going to prison.”
Cooke also sent angry letters to the Department of Work and Pensions when there was a delay in her receiving her money.
She wrote saying: “I hate being messed about.” Another read: “There is too much confusion in this office. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”
Ruth Cranidge, prosecuting, said Cooke failed on four occasions to declare her pension when visited by authorities. Cooke continued to deny she had a pension when the offence came to light but admitted it when confronted with evidence and offered to begin paying it back.
Jane Simpson, mitigating, said the offences began around the time she split up from her first husband. She was left without a home and was worrying about how she would cope financially.
She said Cooke had worked for many years as a nurse, caring for people with learning difficulties and dementia.
Cooke is now repaying the money at around £230 per month and had so far paid back around £3,000.
She urged the judge not to impose an immediate prison sentence as she cared for her second husband, who is receiving treatment for bowel cancer.
But jailing her, the judge added: “It is dreadful to see someone like yourself standing in a crown court like this, having admitted to this catalogue of offending. Going to prison will be a severe shock.”
Joyce Cooke, 66, lied to authorities for almost a decade about an NHS pension which gave her an annual income of around £18,000.
Leeds Crown court heard Cooke even continued to work part-time in nursing after her retirement while claiming the benefits between 2000 and 2009.
She was jailed for four months after pleading guilty to false accounting.
A judge told her that despite her “exemplary” work history, he had to send her to jail.
Judge Alistair McCallum said: “If you chose to be so thoroughly dishonest over such a long period of time you cannot avoid going to prison.”
Cooke also sent angry letters to the Department of Work and Pensions when there was a delay in her receiving her money.
She wrote saying: “I hate being messed about.” Another read: “There is too much confusion in this office. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”
Ruth Cranidge, prosecuting, said Cooke failed on four occasions to declare her pension when visited by authorities. Cooke continued to deny she had a pension when the offence came to light but admitted it when confronted with evidence and offered to begin paying it back.
Jane Simpson, mitigating, said the offences began around the time she split up from her first husband. She was left without a home and was worrying about how she would cope financially.
She said Cooke had worked for many years as a nurse, caring for people with learning difficulties and dementia.
Cooke is now repaying the money at around £230 per month and had so far paid back around £3,000.
She urged the judge not to impose an immediate prison sentence as she cared for her second husband, who is receiving treatment for bowel cancer.
But jailing her, the judge added: “It is dreadful to see someone like yourself standing in a crown court like this, having admitted to this catalogue of offending. Going to prison will be a severe shock.”
11 May 2011
Nominal punishment for benefit thief
A Redditch man has been fined after pleading guilty to benefit fraud.
David Buckler was sentenced for fraudulently claiming £2,669 in housing benefit between February 6 and August 15 2010 by continuing to claim after moving out of the property.
Redditch magistrates heard that the investigation began after Redditch Council received a data match suggesting that the claim was incorrect as an alterative address for Mr Buckler had been identified.
Mr Buckler was fined £65 with £100 costs and a victim surcharge of £15. He was also told to repay the £2,699 to Redditch Borough Council through a Compensation Order.
David Buckler was sentenced for fraudulently claiming £2,669 in housing benefit between February 6 and August 15 2010 by continuing to claim after moving out of the property.
Redditch magistrates heard that the investigation began after Redditch Council received a data match suggesting that the claim was incorrect as an alterative address for Mr Buckler had been identified.
Mr Buckler was fined £65 with £100 costs and a victim surcharge of £15. He was also told to repay the £2,699 to Redditch Borough Council through a Compensation Order.
- 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.
Benefit thief jailed
A retired nurse who fraudulently claimed more than £37,000 in housing and council tax benefits has been sent to jail.
Joyce Cooke, 66, lied to authorities for almost a decade about an NHS pension which gave her an annual income of around £18,000.
Leeds Crown court heard Cooke even continued to work part-time in nursing after her retirement while claiming the benefits between 2000 and 2009.
She was jailed for four months after pleading guilty to false accounting.
A judge told her that despite her “exemplary” work history, he had to send her to jail.
Judge Alistair McCallum said: “If you chose to be so thoroughly dishonest over such a long period of time you cannot avoid going to prison.”
Cooke also sent angry letters to the Department of Work and Pensions when there was a delay in her receiving her money.
She wrote saying: “I hate being messed about.” Another read: “There is too much confusion in this office. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”
Ruth Cranidge, prosecuting, said Cooke failed on four occasions to declare her pension when visited by authorities. Cooke continued to deny she had a pension when the offence came to light but admitted it when confronted with evidence and offered to begin paying it back.
Jane Simpson, mitigating, said the offences began around the time she split up from her first husband. She was left without a home and was worrying about how she would cope financially.
She said Cooke had worked for many years as a nurse, caring for people with learning difficulties and dementia.
Cooke is now repaying the money at around £230 per month and had so far paid back around £3,000.
She urged the judge not to impose an immediate prison sentence as she cared for her second husband, who is receiving treatment for bowel cancer.
But jailing her, the judge added: “It is dreadful to see someone like yourself standing in a crown court like this, having admitted to this catalogue of offending. Going to prison will be a severe shock.”
Joyce Cooke, 66, lied to authorities for almost a decade about an NHS pension which gave her an annual income of around £18,000.
Leeds Crown court heard Cooke even continued to work part-time in nursing after her retirement while claiming the benefits between 2000 and 2009.
She was jailed for four months after pleading guilty to false accounting.
A judge told her that despite her “exemplary” work history, he had to send her to jail.
Judge Alistair McCallum said: “If you chose to be so thoroughly dishonest over such a long period of time you cannot avoid going to prison.”
Cooke also sent angry letters to the Department of Work and Pensions when there was a delay in her receiving her money.
She wrote saying: “I hate being messed about.” Another read: “There is too much confusion in this office. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”
Ruth Cranidge, prosecuting, said Cooke failed on four occasions to declare her pension when visited by authorities. Cooke continued to deny she had a pension when the offence came to light but admitted it when confronted with evidence and offered to begin paying it back.
Jane Simpson, mitigating, said the offences began around the time she split up from her first husband. She was left without a home and was worrying about how she would cope financially.
She said Cooke had worked for many years as a nurse, caring for people with learning difficulties and dementia.
Cooke is now repaying the money at around £230 per month and had so far paid back around £3,000.
She urged the judge not to impose an immediate prison sentence as she cared for her second husband, who is receiving treatment for bowel cancer.
But jailing her, the judge added: “It is dreadful to see someone like yourself standing in a crown court like this, having admitted to this catalogue of offending. Going to prison will be a severe shock.”
Don't pursue this benefit thief
A benefit cheat who fleeced the system out of more than £30,000 would have been better off being honest.
Beverley Dawson claimed various benefits while secretly working as a debt collector.
But if she had told the truth about her circumstances, she would have been entitled to more than £30,000 in tax credits.
Now, because she lied about her status she faces years of trying to pay back her ill-gotten gains.
Dawson, 34, of no fixed address but formerly of Gateshead, began claiming incapacity benefit genuinely in 2002 as she has rheumatoid arthritis.
However, she failed to disclose she had started working as a debt collector for 16 hours a week, earning up to £180.
Between 2003 and 2009 she claimed £29,660 of incapacity benefit, £1,800 of housing benefit and £500 council tax she was not entitled to.
Sentencing her at Newcastle Crown Court, Judge John Evans said: “This case is unique in my experience.
“The Department for Work and Pensions concedes had you made full disclosures to the department, the likelihood is the benefit would have exceeded what you, in fact, received by continuing to deceive as to your circumstances. This is a lesson for those inclined to behave in this way.
“Not only have you received less than you would have received but the department will continue to pursue you for the balance of the fraud.
“Ordinarily this would be met by a custodial sentence but in the very unusual circumstances of this case I’m prepared to give you a conditional discharge for two years.”
The court heard she had since paid back around £2,000 of the money.
Shaun Routledge, defending, said “It’s a rather unusual case.
“She would have received more money if she had told the authorities she was working 16 hours a week.”
It seems a bad use of resources to pursue her for money she would have been entitled to if she'd claimed differently.
Beverley Dawson claimed various benefits while secretly working as a debt collector.
But if she had told the truth about her circumstances, she would have been entitled to more than £30,000 in tax credits.
Now, because she lied about her status she faces years of trying to pay back her ill-gotten gains.
Dawson, 34, of no fixed address but formerly of Gateshead, began claiming incapacity benefit genuinely in 2002 as she has rheumatoid arthritis.
However, she failed to disclose she had started working as a debt collector for 16 hours a week, earning up to £180.
Between 2003 and 2009 she claimed £29,660 of incapacity benefit, £1,800 of housing benefit and £500 council tax she was not entitled to.
Sentencing her at Newcastle Crown Court, Judge John Evans said: “This case is unique in my experience.
“The Department for Work and Pensions concedes had you made full disclosures to the department, the likelihood is the benefit would have exceeded what you, in fact, received by continuing to deceive as to your circumstances. This is a lesson for those inclined to behave in this way.
“Not only have you received less than you would have received but the department will continue to pursue you for the balance of the fraud.
“Ordinarily this would be met by a custodial sentence but in the very unusual circumstances of this case I’m prepared to give you a conditional discharge for two years.”
The court heard she had since paid back around £2,000 of the money.
Shaun Routledge, defending, said “It’s a rather unusual case.
“She would have received more money if she had told the authorities she was working 16 hours a week.”
It seems a bad use of resources to pursue her for money she would have been entitled to if she'd claimed differently.
10 May 2011
Another disability fraudster - with video
A BENEFITS cheat who claimed he was in so much pain that he couldn’t dress himself properly made daily visits to the gym and was seen loading his car with boxes.
Investigators also saw David Rose, who was claiming Disability Living Allowance, go on long walks with his dog without using a stick, driving a car and going shopping, Ipswich Crown Court was told.
Rose, 49, from Stowmarket, admitted benefit fraud between January 2007 and October 2009 and was made the subject of an 18-month community order and 18 months supervision.
Sentencing him, Judge Peter Fenn said Rose’s claim for benefit had been genuine at the outset but he had failed to notify the authorities of an improvement in his condition.
Stephanie Dodd, prosecuting, said that when Rose applied for benefits he said he had chronic back pain and arthritis in his knees, which meant he could not carry out basic tasks on his own, such as getting dressed, and relied on his wife to care for him.
“A surveillance operation was carried out in August 2009 and it was discovered that he could do a lot more than he described,” Miss Dodd said. Could the CPS be slower?
She said that Rose had a gym membership since 2006 and would go on a daily basis and use a treadmill for 20 minutes.
He was also seen going on long dog walks over difficult terrain and up inclines without help and without using a walking stick.
He was also seen loading and unloading his car to go to car boot sales, driving and shopping.
Miss Dodd said that over a period of more than two years Rose had been overpaid £10,000 in benefits which he was currently repaying at £32 a week from his benefit payments.
She said Rose told investigators he had been advised to go to a gym by his doctor to help his back pain and as a result he had lost eight stone in weight.
Miss Dodd accepted that there had been a time when Rose had medical problems, but said he had not notified the authorities when his condition improved.
Rose could give no explanation for what he had done apart from having financial problems.
Lynne Shirley, for Rose, said her client’s health had deteriorated since the offence and he now walked with a stick and no longer went to the gym.
Investigators also saw David Rose, who was claiming Disability Living Allowance, go on long walks with his dog without using a stick, driving a car and going shopping, Ipswich Crown Court was told.
Rose, 49, from Stowmarket, admitted benefit fraud between January 2007 and October 2009 and was made the subject of an 18-month community order and 18 months supervision.
Sentencing him, Judge Peter Fenn said Rose’s claim for benefit had been genuine at the outset but he had failed to notify the authorities of an improvement in his condition.
Stephanie Dodd, prosecuting, said that when Rose applied for benefits he said he had chronic back pain and arthritis in his knees, which meant he could not carry out basic tasks on his own, such as getting dressed, and relied on his wife to care for him.
“A surveillance operation was carried out in August 2009 and it was discovered that he could do a lot more than he described,” Miss Dodd said. Could the CPS be slower?
She said that Rose had a gym membership since 2006 and would go on a daily basis and use a treadmill for 20 minutes.
He was also seen going on long dog walks over difficult terrain and up inclines without help and without using a walking stick.
He was also seen loading and unloading his car to go to car boot sales, driving and shopping.
Miss Dodd said that over a period of more than two years Rose had been overpaid £10,000 in benefits which he was currently repaying at £32 a week from his benefit payments.
She said Rose told investigators he had been advised to go to a gym by his doctor to help his back pain and as a result he had lost eight stone in weight.
Miss Dodd accepted that there had been a time when Rose had medical problems, but said he had not notified the authorities when his condition improved.
Rose could give no explanation for what he had done apart from having financial problems.
Lynne Shirley, for Rose, said her client’s health had deteriorated since the offence and he now walked with a stick and no longer went to the gym.
9 May 2011
Benefit thieves are still thieves
Atos Victims Group (with a blog that's new to me) have commented on a benefit fraudster report here:
But the official figures are too low. Benefit fraud is probably at least £3.5bn a year, and enforcement is woefully under-resourced. Yet even that inadequate enforcement uncovered nearly half a million cases of overpayment.
Oh, and I'm not choosing to "pick on" anyone, just highlighting deliberate thieves.
Benefit fraud is at the lowest ever, I understand it runs at something like o.o5%, a truly small figure, people who rant on about benefit fraud are just mean spirited especially in a time of great reccession.There's a certain inconsistency here. They challenge the results of Atos tests (fair enough), yet uncritically accept (unstated) government figures on overall benefit fraud.
What about the fraud committed by the politicians? Pick on those least able to support themselves why don't you...
But the official figures are too low. Benefit fraud is probably at least £3.5bn a year, and enforcement is woefully under-resourced. Yet even that inadequate enforcement uncovered nearly half a million cases of overpayment.
Oh, and I'm not choosing to "pick on" anyone, just highlighting deliberate thieves.
No prison, you're a mother
A Tamworth woman who fiddled more than £32,000 in benefits for a lifestyle of running two cars and an expensive home entertainment has escaped jail.
Mother-of-four Natalie Aldridge was given a suspended 10-month sentence – for the sake of her children.
For more than three years the 29-year-old falsely claimed income support, housing and council tax benefits as a single parent whilst living with her partner David Parry, Stafford Crown Court heard.
Aldridge, formerly of Marlowe Road, now of Ribblesdale, Tamworth admitted three charges of benefit fraud. The court heard that during the offences the family ran two cars, she driving a Vauxhall Vectra, Mr Parry a Land Rover, they had a £70-a-month Sky package, went on outings and she went shopping.
"It's what honest people can't afford," Judge John Wait told her.
"You stole nearly £33,000 from the rest of us, from people who pay their taxes honestly and are willing to provide support to those who need it.
"You were dishonest about your claims – within a few weeks of your first claim you resumed cohabitation with the father of your (then) three children and went on to make a wholly dishonest claim to Tamworth Borough Council.
"You used that money to live beyond your means. I note you are still choosing to run a car of recent registration.
"You carried on until you were caught and when you were caught you lied until you were shown your lies were absurd.
"You deserve to go to prison, that will punish you but it will be a much greater punishment for your now four children.
"Only because of your four children, I'll suspend it for two years."
But the judge also imposed six months of "home imprisonment", a night-time curfew, and banned her from driving for a year.
"You can't afford a car. You will have to make other arrangements for your children. The car can go and you'll have to start to learn to live within your means."
Mr Ian Ball, prosecuting, said Aldridge made false claims to Birmingham City Council for a private flat. The family moved to Tamworth in February 2008 after being evicted for non-payment of rent.
The claim to Tamworth Borough Council for similar benefits was fraudulent from the outset. An investigation was started in September 2008 when Mr Parry paid off rent arrears.
Mr Delroy Henry, defending, said Aldridge now had a fourth child by a new partner.
He said the offences showed no sophistication or professionalism and she was making efforts to repay the money. Riiight. Meanwhile she keeps up her rackety lifestyle at our expense.
Mother-of-four Natalie Aldridge was given a suspended 10-month sentence – for the sake of her children.
For more than three years the 29-year-old falsely claimed income support, housing and council tax benefits as a single parent whilst living with her partner David Parry, Stafford Crown Court heard.
Aldridge, formerly of Marlowe Road, now of Ribblesdale, Tamworth admitted three charges of benefit fraud. The court heard that during the offences the family ran two cars, she driving a Vauxhall Vectra, Mr Parry a Land Rover, they had a £70-a-month Sky package, went on outings and she went shopping.
"It's what honest people can't afford," Judge John Wait told her.
"You stole nearly £33,000 from the rest of us, from people who pay their taxes honestly and are willing to provide support to those who need it.
"You were dishonest about your claims – within a few weeks of your first claim you resumed cohabitation with the father of your (then) three children and went on to make a wholly dishonest claim to Tamworth Borough Council.
"You used that money to live beyond your means. I note you are still choosing to run a car of recent registration.
"You carried on until you were caught and when you were caught you lied until you were shown your lies were absurd.
"You deserve to go to prison, that will punish you but it will be a much greater punishment for your now four children.
"Only because of your four children, I'll suspend it for two years."
But the judge also imposed six months of "home imprisonment", a night-time curfew, and banned her from driving for a year.
"You can't afford a car. You will have to make other arrangements for your children. The car can go and you'll have to start to learn to live within your means."
Mr Ian Ball, prosecuting, said Aldridge made false claims to Birmingham City Council for a private flat. The family moved to Tamworth in February 2008 after being evicted for non-payment of rent.
The claim to Tamworth Borough Council for similar benefits was fraudulent from the outset. An investigation was started in September 2008 when Mr Parry paid off rent arrears.
Mr Delroy Henry, defending, said Aldridge now had a fourth child by a new partner.
He said the offences showed no sophistication or professionalism and she was making efforts to repay the money. Riiight. Meanwhile she keeps up her rackety lifestyle at our expense.
"CPS to take over benefit fraud prosecutions"
The Crown Prosecution Service is set to take over the role of prosecuting for a series of government departments in cost-cutting measures sweeping Whitehall.
The Crown Prosecution Service is known as the CPS for short, which is also said to stand for "Couldn't Prosecute Satan". It is notorious for its bureaucracy and ineffectiveness.
The existing legal arms of the Department for Environment, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and the Health and Safety Executive would be abolished.
Currently, each department has its own independent team that brings cases against individuals and corporations which commit offences. The Work and Pensions Department, for example, brings benefit fraud cases to court.
But responsibility is to be handed to the CPS. The move, which is expected to be formally announced this summer, will see a swathe of job losses.
In 2009-10 cases of overpayment rose to 499,204, but only 7,765 cases led to prosecutions.
A Whitehall source told The Mail on Sunday:
A CPS spokesman said last night: ‘The CPS has held exploratory discussions with other government departments regarding the most effective way of delivering future prosecution services. No conclusions have yet been reached.’
A spokesman for the Attorney General’s office said: ‘Some prosecuting departments, although by no means all, are exploring with the CPS whether a transfer of this work makes sense. Any decisions would be for individual departments to announce.’
The Crown Prosecution Service is known as the CPS for short, which is also said to stand for "Couldn't Prosecute Satan". It is notorious for its bureaucracy and ineffectiveness.
The existing legal arms of the Department for Environment, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and the Health and Safety Executive would be abolished.
Currently, each department has its own independent team that brings cases against individuals and corporations which commit offences. The Work and Pensions Department, for example, brings benefit fraud cases to court.
But responsibility is to be handed to the CPS. The move, which is expected to be formally announced this summer, will see a swathe of job losses.
In 2009-10 cases of overpayment rose to 499,204, but only 7,765 cases led to prosecutions.
A Whitehall source told The Mail on Sunday:
There will be a merging of all prosecution work into one organisation across the Government.The Attorney General’s office has been liaising with various government departments over the proposed changes. The source added that there had also been discussions within Whitehall for the CPS to take over the role of prosecuting military cases for the Armed Forces.
The CPS will take over every prosecuting function of the Government over a period of time. The decision has been taken because officials believe it will improve efficiency.
A CPS spokesman said last night: ‘The CPS has held exploratory discussions with other government departments regarding the most effective way of delivering future prosecution services. No conclusions have yet been reached.’
A spokesman for the Attorney General’s office said: ‘Some prosecuting departments, although by no means all, are exploring with the CPS whether a transfer of this work makes sense. Any decisions would be for individual departments to announce.’
8 May 2011
Rhondda benefits cheat skydived while 'too ill to walk'
A woman who claimed benefits saying she needed crutches to walk was filmed skydiving out of a plane at 12,000ft, a court was told.
Magistrates heard Clare Jones, from Tonypandy, Rhondda, was so proud of her jump she paid for the professional video - used in evidence against her.
She admitted fraudulently claiming £891 in incapacity benefits and £5,125 in disability living allowance.
She was given conditional bail and the case was adjourned for sentence.
Pontypridd magistrates were told how Jones was on benefits, claiming she could only walk up to 25 metres with the aid of crutches.
And she also claimed her back was so painful, she could not stand at the cooker or cut vegetables for her partner and three children.
She was caught out after volunteering to do the tandem jump - attached to an experienced instructor - to raise money for charity.
Another parachutist filmed Jones leaping from the aircraft above Swansea Airport and going into a 120mph free fall for 45 seconds.
The film ends with Jones landing comfortably on two feet, smiling and speaking into the camera.
Prosecutor Jonathan Holmes said: "A DVD obtained from the event showed her walking to the plane, parachuting out, landing and then walking away.
"At first she denied taking part in the parachute jump but later accepted she had done it."
Jones also visited her local gym 40 times using the facilities, swimming pool and sauna, Mr Holmes told the court.
An investigation revealed that the leisure centre in Tonypandy had records of Jones logging in with her swipe card.
During the course of the inquiry Jones admitted walking to her local social club with her partner and dancing despite claiming she had severe back problems.
Mr Holmes said: "She accepted she went out at weekends with her partner walking to and from home to the club and dancing there.
"All these things should have been declared - clearly her symptoms had improved and the proper authorities should have been notified."
During the time of her claim Jones also worked at a sandwich bar called Funfillers and a restaurant called Truly Scrumptious, the court was told.
She has repaid the £891 incapacity benefits but still owes £5,014 of the disability living allowance.
Magistrates heard Clare Jones, from Tonypandy, Rhondda, was so proud of her jump she paid for the professional video - used in evidence against her.
She admitted fraudulently claiming £891 in incapacity benefits and £5,125 in disability living allowance.
She was given conditional bail and the case was adjourned for sentence.
Pontypridd magistrates were told how Jones was on benefits, claiming she could only walk up to 25 metres with the aid of crutches.
And she also claimed her back was so painful, she could not stand at the cooker or cut vegetables for her partner and three children.
She was caught out after volunteering to do the tandem jump - attached to an experienced instructor - to raise money for charity.
Another parachutist filmed Jones leaping from the aircraft above Swansea Airport and going into a 120mph free fall for 45 seconds.
The film ends with Jones landing comfortably on two feet, smiling and speaking into the camera.
Prosecutor Jonathan Holmes said: "A DVD obtained from the event showed her walking to the plane, parachuting out, landing and then walking away.
"At first she denied taking part in the parachute jump but later accepted she had done it."
Jones also visited her local gym 40 times using the facilities, swimming pool and sauna, Mr Holmes told the court.
An investigation revealed that the leisure centre in Tonypandy had records of Jones logging in with her swipe card.
During the course of the inquiry Jones admitted walking to her local social club with her partner and dancing despite claiming she had severe back problems.
Mr Holmes said: "She accepted she went out at weekends with her partner walking to and from home to the club and dancing there.
"All these things should have been declared - clearly her symptoms had improved and the proper authorities should have been notified."
During the time of her claim Jones also worked at a sandwich bar called Funfillers and a restaurant called Truly Scrumptious, the court was told.
She has repaid the £891 incapacity benefits but still owes £5,014 of the disability living allowance.
7 May 2011
Light sentence for benefit thief
A MAN aged 66 has been ordered to pay almost £6,000 after admitting benefit fraud.
Denis Petch, from Driffield, fraudulently claimed £5,484 in housing and council tax benefits between February and December last year after failing to declare he was working.
Petch claimed to be unemployed, but an investigation was launched after East Riding Council received a report suggesting he was working full-time, and he was found to be working as a sub-contractor for a logistics firm.
Petch admitted benefit fraud when he appeared before magistrates in Bridlington and was ordered to repay the money he wrongly claimed, plus £345 in costs. He was also given a 12-month conditional discharge.
Council sanctions officer Richard Johnson said:
Denis Petch, from Driffield, fraudulently claimed £5,484 in housing and council tax benefits between February and December last year after failing to declare he was working.
Petch claimed to be unemployed, but an investigation was launched after East Riding Council received a report suggesting he was working full-time, and he was found to be working as a sub-contractor for a logistics firm.
Petch admitted benefit fraud when he appeared before magistrates in Bridlington and was ordered to repay the money he wrongly claimed, plus £345 in costs. He was also given a 12-month conditional discharge.
Council sanctions officer Richard Johnson said:
Those who choose to deliberately obtain benefit dishonestly should be aware that it is only a matter of time before they are brought before the courts. Taxpayers are the victims of benefit fraud and I urge East Riding residents to report their suspicions to the authority.Detection's inevitable? Not in Sheffield, anyway.
6 May 2011
Benefit fraud detection in perspective
Sheffield Council announced last month that it was to halve its housing benefit and council tax fraud investigation team, raising - according to the BBC - fears that criminals could slip through the net.
So was Sheffield a hard target before? They were targeting 300 benefit thieves a year. But how many claimants did Sheffield have? The council say that
Criminals probably will slip through the net. As before.
There are currently 14 staff on the team, tasked with catching 300 cheats a year.Union representatives warned this could make the council a "soft target".
That target will be cut to 150 after the council withdrew £3.3m of funding from Capita, the company that runs the department.
So was Sheffield a hard target before? They were targeting 300 benefit thieves a year. But how many claimants did Sheffield have? The council say that
During 2010/11 there were 33,759 new claims for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit and at the end of the financial year there were 63,647 customers in receipt of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.In other words, any fraudster who gets caught is seriously unlucky.
Criminals probably will slip through the net. As before.
Zimbabwean in benefit fraud
A man from Zimbabwe fraudulently claimed more than £14,000 of benefits in Swansea using a stolen identity.
Now he is facing the prospect of deportation when he has served a 23-month sentence having been found guilty of 14 charges of dishonesty in respect of benefit fraud, and one of fraudulently obtaining a UK passport.
The Zimbabwean, who has still to admit his true identity. has been convicted at Leamington Spa Crown Court.
Swansea Council’s Benefits Investigation Team and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) found he had stolen the identity of innocent victim Graham Spencer, who lives in Berkshire.
Investigations showed the Zimbabwean dishonestly acquired a UK passport in unsuspecting Mr Spencer’s name in 1999 and had been living off his identity for more than a decade.
Using the stolen identity he fraudulently claimed Housing Benefit at two addresses in Swansea between early 2007 and late 2008.
The fraudster pleaded guilty to all 15 charges against him after being tracked down by the Swansea investigation team.
Now he is facing the prospect of deportation when he has served a 23-month sentence having been found guilty of 14 charges of dishonesty in respect of benefit fraud, and one of fraudulently obtaining a UK passport.
The Zimbabwean, who has still to admit his true identity. has been convicted at Leamington Spa Crown Court.
Swansea Council’s Benefits Investigation Team and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) found he had stolen the identity of innocent victim Graham Spencer, who lives in Berkshire.
Investigations showed the Zimbabwean dishonestly acquired a UK passport in unsuspecting Mr Spencer’s name in 1999 and had been living off his identity for more than a decade.
Using the stolen identity he fraudulently claimed Housing Benefit at two addresses in Swansea between early 2007 and late 2008.
The fraudster pleaded guilty to all 15 charges against him after being tracked down by the Swansea investigation team.
5 May 2011
Benefits system "creaking under the strain"
A Haverfordwest woman failed to reveal she had more than £30,000 capital and went on to claim more than £13,000 in benefits, a judge has been told.
Elizabeth Mary Jones, aged 54, admitted making false statements in order to receive council tax, housing benefit and income support payments totalling £13,611.
Hannah Ahamdi, prosecuting, told Swansea crown court the claims were fraudulent from the outset.
Jones, of Albert Street, first began claiming in October, 2008, which involved her declaring that she did not have savings, investments or capital of more than £16,000.
The Department for Work and Pensions received a tip off and began an investigation which revealed that, in fact, she had capital of more than £30,000.
Her barrister, David Lloyd, said Jones had been the youngest of 13 children who had given up her own childhood to look after her mother.
Judge Peter Heywood said he would have made an order forcing Jones to carry out unpaid work for the community she had offended, but she was not fit enough to carry it out.
She was jailed for 26 weeks, suspended for two years, and placed under supervision for two years.
Judge Heywood said the whole benefits system was creaking under the strain and for 18 months Jones had made fraudulent claims.
An investigation under the proceeds of crime act is under way.
Elizabeth Mary Jones, aged 54, admitted making false statements in order to receive council tax, housing benefit and income support payments totalling £13,611.
Hannah Ahamdi, prosecuting, told Swansea crown court the claims were fraudulent from the outset.
Jones, of Albert Street, first began claiming in October, 2008, which involved her declaring that she did not have savings, investments or capital of more than £16,000.
The Department for Work and Pensions received a tip off and began an investigation which revealed that, in fact, she had capital of more than £30,000.
Her barrister, David Lloyd, said Jones had been the youngest of 13 children who had given up her own childhood to look after her mother.
Judge Peter Heywood said he would have made an order forcing Jones to carry out unpaid work for the community she had offended, but she was not fit enough to carry it out.
She was jailed for 26 weeks, suspended for two years, and placed under supervision for two years.
Judge Heywood said the whole benefits system was creaking under the strain and for 18 months Jones had made fraudulent claims.
An investigation under the proceeds of crime act is under way.
4 May 2011
BBC says policeman in social housing fraud
A serving Metropolitan Police officer has been unlawfully subletting his council flat, according to a BBC Panorama investigation.
Pc Stephen Holt offered to rent his council property to an undercover reporter at £359 more than he pays Southwark Council in weekly rent.
The government has labelled unlawful subletting "housing fraud", which costs the taxpayer at least £1bn a year.
Pc Holt did not respond to Panorama's queries about the council flat rental.
As part of its investigation into social housing, Panorama replied to an advert Pc Holt placed on a website and an undercover reporter went to view the flat.
Pc Holt, a part-time crime prevention officer and a part-time property developer who has appeared on daytime TV property programmes, showed the reporter around the flat near Butler's Wharf, close to Tower Bridge in London.
He offered the flat to the reporter at £450 for the week. Rent on the Southwark council flat is £91 a week.
Panorama paid the rental fee in cash, along with a £200 cash deposit.
Under the terms of his tenancy, Pc Holt should be living in the property and should not be renting it out.
Pc Holt told Panorama's undercover reporter that any post that arrived in his name could be directed to the flat opposite, which Pc Holt owns.
The Audit Commission believes that unlawful subletting of properties is currently removing at least 50,000 council homes from the system in England, adding to the wider shortage at a time when almost five million people in the country are on waiting lists for social housing.
While showing the reporter around property, Pc Holt also said that he owned a chateau in Bordeaux in the south of France. Pc Holt also owns a property in rural Kent.
The tenant of a council property is not prohibited from owning other properties. But Grant Shapps is right. People with such assets shouldn't be taking up social housing.
With subletting adding to a growing social housing problem and demand outstripping supply, Portsmouth Council is informing new inquirers and many on its waiting list they are unlikely to be offered council accommodation.
"Most people on a council waiting list are never, ever going to get offers of council accommodation," said Pete Diamond, a housing officer with Portsmouth Council.
"I just think the fairest way of doing it is just to be honest and just say to people, 'look, you may have a housing need, you may have all this situation going on but we still can't help you'," Mr Diamond continued.
Panorama wrote to Pc Holt, asking him to respond to the allegations but did not receive a reply. Other attempts to contact him failed.
Panorama contacted Southwark Council about Pc Holt.
Following council investigations, Pc Holt has been issued with a notice to quit the property.
He should be out of social housing altogether, and he should be prosecuted.
Pc Stephen Holt offered to rent his council property to an undercover reporter at £359 more than he pays Southwark Council in weekly rent.
The government has labelled unlawful subletting "housing fraud", which costs the taxpayer at least £1bn a year.
Pc Holt did not respond to Panorama's queries about the council flat rental.
As part of its investigation into social housing, Panorama replied to an advert Pc Holt placed on a website and an undercover reporter went to view the flat.
Pc Holt, a part-time crime prevention officer and a part-time property developer who has appeared on daytime TV property programmes, showed the reporter around the flat near Butler's Wharf, close to Tower Bridge in London.
He offered the flat to the reporter at £450 for the week. Rent on the Southwark council flat is £91 a week.
Panorama paid the rental fee in cash, along with a £200 cash deposit.
Under the terms of his tenancy, Pc Holt should be living in the property and should not be renting it out.
Pc Holt told Panorama's undercover reporter that any post that arrived in his name could be directed to the flat opposite, which Pc Holt owns.
The Audit Commission believes that unlawful subletting of properties is currently removing at least 50,000 council homes from the system in England, adding to the wider shortage at a time when almost five million people in the country are on waiting lists for social housing.
While showing the reporter around property, Pc Holt also said that he owned a chateau in Bordeaux in the south of France. Pc Holt also owns a property in rural Kent.
The tenant of a council property is not prohibited from owning other properties. But Grant Shapps is right. People with such assets shouldn't be taking up social housing.
With subletting adding to a growing social housing problem and demand outstripping supply, Portsmouth Council is informing new inquirers and many on its waiting list they are unlikely to be offered council accommodation.
"Most people on a council waiting list are never, ever going to get offers of council accommodation," said Pete Diamond, a housing officer with Portsmouth Council.
"I just think the fairest way of doing it is just to be honest and just say to people, 'look, you may have a housing need, you may have all this situation going on but we still can't help you'," Mr Diamond continued.
Panorama wrote to Pc Holt, asking him to respond to the allegations but did not receive a reply. Other attempts to contact him failed.
Panorama contacted Southwark Council about Pc Holt.
Following council investigations, Pc Holt has been issued with a notice to quit the property.
He should be out of social housing altogether, and he should be prosecuted.
No jail for £36k benefit frauds couple
A couple who fraudulently claimed more than £36,000 in benefits between them have been spared jail.
Joseph Gill claimed he needed assistance with everyday tasks around the home and needed to be helped out of bed and the bath by partner Sandra Foster.
But while the 49-year-old was claiming incapacity benefit and disability living allowance, he took on physically demanding jobs, often abroad, involving clearing large oil and petroleum containers.
Teesside Crown Court heard that he was overpaid £17,512 by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) between 2004 and 2009.
Vince Ward, prosecuting, said during this period, Gill had nine employers and earned £102,000.
Meanwhile, 44-year-old Foster had legitimately claimed income support and housing and council tax benefit in January 2005 after moving in with Gill as his lodger.
But by November, the pair had started a relationship and later opened a joint bank account – but Foster failed to tell the DWP.
Her fraudulent claims from 2005 to 2009 meant she was overpaid £19,316.
Gill, from West Cornforth, County Durham, admitted deception, four counts of false representation and three of failing to disclose relevant information.
Foster, of the same address, admitted two deception charges.
Zoe Passfield, representing both, said Gill had suffered a serious back complaint and could only work by taking morphine four times a day.
She said he had tried to end his benefit claims, but found the process “too bureaucratic”.
Sentencing them, Judge Howard Crowson said: “There is not enough public money to go round, yet there are people who feel it is possible to increase their own personal wealth by claiming benefits they are not entitled to.”
He said Gill’s claims were “nothing short of greed” and only the fact they were now repaying the money at a rate of £350 per month had saved Gill, in particular, from jail.
Gill was given a nine-month jail sentence, suspended for a year, plus 100 hours of unpaid community work.
Foster received two months, also suspended for a year, and 60 hours unpaid work.
Both will serve night-time curfews.
Joseph Gill claimed he needed assistance with everyday tasks around the home and needed to be helped out of bed and the bath by partner Sandra Foster.
But while the 49-year-old was claiming incapacity benefit and disability living allowance, he took on physically demanding jobs, often abroad, involving clearing large oil and petroleum containers.
Teesside Crown Court heard that he was overpaid £17,512 by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) between 2004 and 2009.
Vince Ward, prosecuting, said during this period, Gill had nine employers and earned £102,000.
Meanwhile, 44-year-old Foster had legitimately claimed income support and housing and council tax benefit in January 2005 after moving in with Gill as his lodger.
But by November, the pair had started a relationship and later opened a joint bank account – but Foster failed to tell the DWP.
Her fraudulent claims from 2005 to 2009 meant she was overpaid £19,316.
Gill, from West Cornforth, County Durham, admitted deception, four counts of false representation and three of failing to disclose relevant information.
Foster, of the same address, admitted two deception charges.
Zoe Passfield, representing both, said Gill had suffered a serious back complaint and could only work by taking morphine four times a day.
She said he had tried to end his benefit claims, but found the process “too bureaucratic”.
Sentencing them, Judge Howard Crowson said: “There is not enough public money to go round, yet there are people who feel it is possible to increase their own personal wealth by claiming benefits they are not entitled to.”
He said Gill’s claims were “nothing short of greed” and only the fact they were now repaying the money at a rate of £350 per month had saved Gill, in particular, from jail.
Gill was given a nine-month jail sentence, suspended for a year, plus 100 hours of unpaid community work.
Foster received two months, also suspended for a year, and 60 hours unpaid work.
Both will serve night-time curfews.
3 May 2011
Smoking, druggie benefit fraud mother jailed
A mother who claimed thousands in benefits for three children she invented has been jailed for a year for fraud after her scheme was uncovered.
A court heard heroin addict Lisa Ellington named the non-existent children Janine, Thomas and Courtney, and spent some of the £60,541 she swindled on feeding her drug problem.
Ellington, 27, had been legitimately claiming tax credits and child support for her eldest child, aged two, but then began submitting fraudulent claims for both children following their July 2004 adoption, after one was abused by her boyfriend.
The deception was not discovered until April 2009.
Ellington began claiming for her invented children between February 2006 and May 2007. The children had the surname of her partner, Nicholas Grainger.
But prosecutor Rashad Mohammed told Warwick Crown Court: ‘In fact those three children do not exist. She (Ellington) had fabricated the names and dates of birth, and the claim was accepted as valid.’
He said Ellington went on to request payments to be increased on four further occasions on the basis at least one of the children was suffering from disabilities.
‘That was false, because two of them were not disabled, and the others did not exist’, Mr Mohammed said.
The scam was uncovered when Ellington and Grainger were arrested in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, in 2009 as part of a class-A drug sting called Operation Laser.
Last year Grainger, 31, received a three-year jail term for conspiracy to supply drugs, while Ellington escaped with a community sentence.
Mr Mohammed said Ellington had previous convictions for offences including child cruelty for which she was jailed for a year in November 2004 – five days after her first fraudulent claim.
A court heard her eldest child suffered broken bones and burns at the couple’s squalid flat. Social services were alerted after a tip-off from family and the public, including an aunt who saw cigarette burn on his fingers.
Grainger, who was the father of Ellington’s second child but not the first, was jailed for 18 months after also admitting child cruelty.
Peter Freeman, defending Ellington at Warwick Crown Court, said she had been a ‘proud mum’ when her first child had been born in August 2002. Her second child was born shortly before she was jailed for cruelty towards the first, and she then applied for further payments.
‘The system then was that you just phone up and say you have another child, Mr Freeman said.
When she was freed from prison in May 2005 she visited the children, who were in foster care, and continued to claim tax credits on the basis that she was still providing for them. But her claims continued for both children after they had been adopted.
Speaking to a local newspaper before she was sentenced last week, Ellington said: ‘I know I’ve done wrong and I’ll accept whatever punishment is given to me. But I have had a lot going on in my life.
'It’s complicated and everyone makes mistakes in their lives. I just want to put this behind me.’
A court heard heroin addict Lisa Ellington named the non-existent children Janine, Thomas and Courtney, and spent some of the £60,541 she swindled on feeding her drug problem.
Ellington, 27, had been legitimately claiming tax credits and child support for her eldest child, aged two, but then began submitting fraudulent claims for both children following their July 2004 adoption, after one was abused by her boyfriend.
The deception was not discovered until April 2009.
Ellington began claiming for her invented children between February 2006 and May 2007. The children had the surname of her partner, Nicholas Grainger.
But prosecutor Rashad Mohammed told Warwick Crown Court: ‘In fact those three children do not exist. She (Ellington) had fabricated the names and dates of birth, and the claim was accepted as valid.’
He said Ellington went on to request payments to be increased on four further occasions on the basis at least one of the children was suffering from disabilities.
‘That was false, because two of them were not disabled, and the others did not exist’, Mr Mohammed said.
The scam was uncovered when Ellington and Grainger were arrested in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, in 2009 as part of a class-A drug sting called Operation Laser.
Last year Grainger, 31, received a three-year jail term for conspiracy to supply drugs, while Ellington escaped with a community sentence.
Mr Mohammed said Ellington had previous convictions for offences including child cruelty for which she was jailed for a year in November 2004 – five days after her first fraudulent claim.
A court heard her eldest child suffered broken bones and burns at the couple’s squalid flat. Social services were alerted after a tip-off from family and the public, including an aunt who saw cigarette burn on his fingers.
Grainger, who was the father of Ellington’s second child but not the first, was jailed for 18 months after also admitting child cruelty.
Peter Freeman, defending Ellington at Warwick Crown Court, said she had been a ‘proud mum’ when her first child had been born in August 2002. Her second child was born shortly before she was jailed for cruelty towards the first, and she then applied for further payments.
‘The system then was that you just phone up and say you have another child, Mr Freeman said.
When she was freed from prison in May 2005 she visited the children, who were in foster care, and continued to claim tax credits on the basis that she was still providing for them. But her claims continued for both children after they had been adopted.
Speaking to a local newspaper before she was sentenced last week, Ellington said: ‘I know I’ve done wrong and I’ll accept whatever punishment is given to me. But I have had a lot going on in my life.
'It’s complicated and everyone makes mistakes in their lives. I just want to put this behind me.’
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