Lenient benefit fraud sentences attacked

Basildon councillor Phil Turner is a hero of this blog. He repeatedly criticises benefit fraud sentences which he considers too light.

Susan McCluskey had admitted five counts of dishonestly failing to notify the Council of changes in her circumstances, by failing to declare that she had a working partner living with her.

She had received overpayments of £45,000 in Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance, £15,800 in Housing Benefit and £4,600 in Council Tax benefit she was not entitled to, over eight years.

An overpayment figure of £30,000 was agreed for sentencing purposes. She was given a six months community punishment order.

Mr Turner - rightly - called the sentence "derisory".

This is derisory and no deterrent.

It’s an insult to law abiding taxpayers who play by the rules and an insult to those genuinely in need who play by the rules.

Although the guilty party will have to pay back every penny, I truly believe that we should see more custodial sentences.

What sort of deterrent is a six month community order for a fraud carried out over eight years?

This sends a completely wrong message. Benefit fraud will be seen by some dishonest members of the community as an easy way to get a cheap loan that you can pay back once caught.

Indeed it is a cheap loan - typically you pay it back at £10 a fortnight. And, of course, you pay no interest.

This blog believes that benefit thieves should have to pay back twice what they stole, and that they should get no benefits until they have. A confiscation order should be made immediately.

Why should taxpayers be forced to keep subsidising these people? If the left think these thieves should still get our money, let them set up a charity (maybe called Benefits For Fraudsters) and see how many donors contribute to it.

Of course there should be transition arrangements. Anyone confessing between now and the end of the year would be dealt with under present rules. For anyone charged after that, the new tariff would apply.

We'd probably see a drop in benefit claims. Benefit theft is not only morally repugnant, it also costs us a lot of money. The latest official number has shot up from £1.1bn to £1.7bn, but the real total is over £5bn - and that could make useful inroads into the government debt, which would benefit us all.

Meanwhile, there is the deterrent effect in sentencing? Take the Revd John Randall, who claimed benefits of £6,580 despite the fact he was receiving £23,000 in student loans and was in full-time education studying biosciences at Westminster University. He has to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £100 in costs. And as for paying back what he owes?

The fraudster, who is again claiming benefits, is re-paying the total amount of conned money in fortnightly instalments.

Or take Karen Weaver. She admitted benefit fraud of nearly £50,000 in December 2011 and was given a 52-week prison sentence suspended for two years, with two years' supervision, a 10-day special activity requirement and a three-month curfew.

Alas, she has been out of touch with the probation service but she has "a number of medical problems which the service did not know about". Her defence said Weaver had been receiving help with her alcohol dependency - and had been free of it for five days.

She was frightened when she received the 52 weeks in the first place. The thought of custody scares her tremendously.

Changing the sentence, Judge William Hart said because the probation service had not been informed about all Weaver's problems, he did not have to activate the suspended sentence.

Can he be serious? We are talking about £50,000 here.

Benefit fraud is hard to detect, and the sheer number of offenders would overwhelm the courts if they were all caught.

All the more need, then, for deterrent sentences to put offenders off. Phil Turner is right.

Hardened criminals were on high benefits

An unscrupulous couple who operated a £250,000 VAT scam claimed £32,000 a year in benefits to fund their luxury Chelsea penthouse.

Emmanuel and Behnaz Scotts received £2,670 a month in housing benefit, covering 60 per cent of their bill for the four-bed apartment in the exclusive Chelsea Harbour.

They were also given £1,750 a year in child benefit, which helped to fund a private school education for one of their two daughters.

The couple received jobseekers' allowance of £64.30 a week each - which Hammersmith and Fulham Council said meant it was forced to pay them housing benefit.

More about the VAT fraud

h/t Dave

More light sentences for benefit thieves

A DEVIOUS mum swindled £30,000 benefits after stealing the identity of a woman she met 30 years ago.

Con artist Nina Raymont, 58, obtained a passport and National Insurance number in the name Sandra Forshaw and lived a double life.

She left the country to travel the world, raised two children and became a successful businesswoman.

But well-spoken Raymont returned to Britain in 2009 and started raking in benefits under her alias.

Over three years she fiddled £13,000 in pension credits and £17,367 housing benefit.

Council officials eventually spotted she was claiming under the names Raymont and Forshaw.

Cops raided her home in Oxford and found bank statements and a California driving license in the name of Forshaw.

Legal papers, including the real Miss Forshaw's father's will, were also unearthed.

When she first appeared before magistrates last June, Raymont lied under oath still claiming to be Sandra Forshaw.

But the grey-haired swindler escaped jail.

Raymont was given a 12-month suspended sentence and 250 hours of community service at Oxford Crown Court.

She pleaded guilty last month to six charges — two of obtaining false passports by deception, three of fraud and one of perjury.

Judge Gordon Risius said her deceit had taken "some planning."

He added:

Benefit fraud is also a serious offence, not least because it involves public money which can often not be recovered.

• Then show in your sentencing that you take it seriously.
  
  Benefit thieves do it for the money. They should know they will have to pay back twice what they stole, and that they will get no benefits until they have. A confiscation order should be made immediately.

======

Trusted civil servant who diverted £24,000 of benefits cash into her account was spared jail yesterday.

Samantha Douglas, 30, used her job as an administrative officer at the Department of Work and Pensions to pay herself 17 times.

Five years earlier she forged her partner's signature to get £22,500 in loans.

Douglas, of Wrexham, North Wales, admitted fraud and forgery. But the court in Chester heard she was a single parent struggling to keep a roof over her head.

She was given a 51-week prison sentence, suspended for two years.

• So she hasn't had any punishment at all.

Light sentence - and she's still on incapacity benefit

A dog breeder who illegally claimed £6,000 in benefits because she could "barely walk" was filmed strolling around Crufts for hours.

Dianne Page, 48, was watched by investigators as she walked — holding a huge Leonberger mountain dog with one hand while pulling a trolley with the other.

A court heard she spent eight hours at the annual dog show.

Page climbed two flights of stairs, spent 80 minutes on her feet without a rest and at the end of the show shunned a free bus to walk unaided 1,200 yards to the car park.

Page — who claimed a muscle wasting disease was so bad she had difficulties swallowing — was also seen eating and drinking without a problem at the Birmingham NEC Arena.

Prosecutor Paul Kay said: "She showed no outward signs of any physical difficulties."

Page breeds Leonbergers at home in Brindley Ford, Staffs. She said she had made a genuine benefit claim in 1998 but admitted failing to notify officials of a change in circumstances.

Her lawyer Simon Dykes said: "She accepts she should have said that when she takes a certain level of medication, her mobility is improved. She recognises the error of her ways."

He added that she still received around £400 per month in incapacity benefits due to her illness.

North Staffordshire Magistrates gave her a 90-day curfew and ordered her to pay £100 court costs.

But where is the punishment?

A man has received a suspended prison sentence and a curfew after fraudulently claiming more than £22,000 in benefits.

Steven Thorley, from Stretford, was convicted of dishonestly obtaining Income Support, Incapacity Benefit, Disability Living Allowance, and Housing and Council Tax Benefit amounting to £22,385.41.

Mr Thorley pleaded guilty to failing to report changes in his circumstances to The Department for Work and Pensions and Trafford Council's Benefits Departments after he started paid employment as a lorry driver.

Mr Thorley's claim to Disability Living Allowance was based on limited mobility with back problems for which he received injections.

As a result he has been overpaid Income Support, Incapacity Benefit, Disability Living Allowance, and Housing and Council Tax Benefit between June 2008 and March 2011. He was sentenced at Manchester Magistrates' Court to 10 Weeks in prison, suspended for two years, a 15-week curfew between 7pm and 7am, and to pay costs of £250.

In addition to this, Mr Thorley is required to repay all money that he falsely claimed from The Department for Work and Pensions and Trafford Council.

Department for Work and Pensions Counter Fraud Officers were alerted to this matter following receipt of information that indicated Mr Thorley was in paid employment.

Executive Councillor Sean Anstee said:

We take benefit fraud extremely seriously and are committed to tackling cases of crime against the council tax payer to protect public money. I would urge anybody who suspects benefit fraud is being committed to contact the Council.

• But where is the actual punishment? He can easily avoid the suspended sentence ... he has to pay back the money he stole, probably over a long time with no interest added ... and he has to stay in in the evening for 15 weeks. That, in fact, is the sum total of his actual punishment, and it's pathetic.
  
  Yet again, the councillor may say they take benefit fraud "extremely seriously" - but the bench just doesn't.

Another light sentence for a benefit thief

The boss of a tyre disposal depot has been exposed as a benefits cheat after he was found to have fraudulently claimed £42,000.

Mark Whalley, managing director of Salford firm EU Tyres Solutions Ltd, was handed a suspended jail sentence after admitting the fraud.

Department of Work and Pensions investigators established that, between 2004 and 2010, £550,000 went through all known bank accounts linked to him and the company.

They also discovered that, between 2006 and 2010, Whalley was overpaid Income Support, which he claimed due to incapacity. He also received housing and council tax benefit to which he was not entitled. The total loss to the public funds amounted to £42,267.

Whalley was arrested at the EU site in June 2010.

The company, based in Liverpool Road, Irlam, collects old tyres from companies throughout the region and disposes of them by shipping them abroad for destruction.

At Minshull Street Crown Court, Whalley admitted six charges of failure to notify a change of circumstances and false representation contrary to the Fraud Act and Social Security Administration Act. He was sentenced to 24 weeks, suspended for a year, and ordered to carry out 150 hours of community service.

Whalley, from Partington, was appointed joint company director and shareholder of the firm in May 2009.

He has a 60 per cent share in the business. His company was targeted as part of Project Gulf.

Det Sgt Paul Sewart, from the Project Gulf team, said: "This investigation shows our community that we take all allegations of fraud seriously and they will be investigated".

• Sadly, the courts don't treat benefit fraud offences seriously. The community notices that.

Cleaner fools the benefits authorities for years

A benefits cheat who worked as a cleaner in Britain’s first nudist hotel has been spared jail for a nine-year fraud which netted her over £30,000.

Cindy Frost, 53, had claimed she was completely unable to work but was caught out when officials discovered her working at The Clover Hotel in Erdington, Birmingham.

Investigators from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) caught Frost cleaning rooms at the luxury retreat - the country’s first spa hotel for nudists.

She was handed a 12-week suspended sentence at Birmingham Magistrates Court.

Frost, also from Erdington, racked up £32,063.63 between 6 April 2002 and 3 August last year.

Prosecutor Gurminder Sanghera told the hearing that Frost had been working as a housekeeper whilst in receipt of benefits.

Miss Sanghera, prosecuting, said Frost had been claiming incapacity benefit for ill health since November 1997.

She told magistrates that Frost had admitted when interviewed in August 2011 that she needed to report a change in circumstances to the DWP.

She said: 'In interviews, Miss Frost said she thought because she working less than 16 hours a week she did not have to declare it.'

Miss Sanghera added that the claim had been genuine to begin with, but that Mrs Frost knew her benefits would be affected by the change in her circumstances.

Frost, who pleaded guilty to one count of failing to declare a change in circumstances at a hearing earlier this month, showed no emotion as her sentence was read out.

Miss Sanghera said they believed the overpayment to be £32,063 because although Frost had stopped working in October 2008, she still was not entitled to incapacity benefits after that time because she had proved herself capable of working.

But for the purposes of sentencing, she said investigators accepted the overpayment was £28,256.

Gordon Peters, representing Frost, said that she had mental problems throughout her employment and would have been entitled to other benefits as a result of her illness.

Mr Peters said: 'However, there would have been an entitlement to other benefits.

'She was earning less than six pounds per hour and had other benefit entitlements during that period had she declared the work that she was doing.'

Sentencing, magistrate Karen Sharpe told Frost she had escaped a custodial sentence because of her personal circumstances and early guilty plea.

She handed Frost a 12 week sentence, suspended for 12 months, a 12 month community order and a three-month electronic tag curfew.

Frost, who has no previous convictions, was also ordered to pay £100 costs, which she agreed to pay off at £10 per fortnight.

• Then at the end of the report we get the standard quote from Lord Freud that  'benefit thieves are costing the taxpayer almost £1billion per year'.
  
  But it's over £5billion.

Where's the punishment for this benefit thief?

A benefit cheat who falsely claimed more than £51,000 after failing to tell authorities how much she had in the bank has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Sally Simcox, from Thurne, Belgrave, Tamworth, claimed income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit, but "deliberately failed to declare all the money she had in her bank account", a borough council spokesman said.

Although the exact amount of money in the account was not revealed, benefits are not paid to claimants when they have more than £16,000 in savings.

Simcox appeared at Stafford Crown Court on Thursday last week, where she pleaded guilty to the offence.

She was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was ordered to pay back the £51, 727.47 fraudulently obtained.

Effectively this is "give it back and don't do it again". Given that most benefit fraudsters get away with it, where is the deterrent effect here?

The total overpayment was made up of £13,175.50 income support, £32,273.37 housing benefit and £6,278.60 council tax benefit.

• Benefit thieves do it for the money. They should know they will have to pay back twice what they stole, and that they will get no benefits until they have. A confiscation order should be made immediately.
  
  Any benefit thieves who don't go to prison should also have to do community service.

Builder stays down

A SWANSEA builder already in prison for drugs offences has been jailed for another eight months for a benefits fraud involving more than £73,000.

Specialists from Swansea Council and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) investigated 46-year-old Jonathan Phillips after an anonymous tip-off.

They discovered that Phillips, from Mount Pleasant in Gowerton, had failed to declare he was working as a self-employed builder.

Following the sentence imposed by a judge at Swansea Crown Court, they warned that benefit cheats would be tracked down and dealt with.

The eight-month sentence was made consecutive to a two-year term Phillips has been serving since last August for drugs offences.

Phillips pleaded guilty to benefit fraud offences when he appeared yesterday at Swansea Crown Court.

Over a period of nine years — from 2002 to last year — he fraudulently obtained £73,290 in income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit that he was not entitled to.

Anthony Vines, prosecuting, said Phillips committed the fraud by claiming benefits when he was running a building company called Abertawe Building.

He failed to inform the DWP and Swansea Council that he was working full-time.

When an investigation was launched, Phillips claimed to have gambling debts and to have borrowed money from "loads of people".

He accepted he should have told the authorities he was able to work, said Mr Vines.

The court heard that in August last year Phillips received a two-year jail sentence for possessing controlled drugs with the intention of supplying them.

Solicitor-advocate Andrew Evans conceded that, in the circumstances, only a custodial sentence was appropriate for the benefits fraud.

Judge Keith Thomas, imposing a consecutive sentence of eight months, said that if Phillips had been convicted after a trial the sentence would have been 12 months.

Phillips is being held at Parc Prison in Bridgend.

Council investigations manager Tal Davies said: "We are pleased the judge recognised the serious nature of this crime and sentenced Phillips to eight months imprisonment to run consecutively to his current sentence for drugs offences, which came to light when he was arrested on suspicion of benefit fraud.

"Cheats may think they can beat the system and pick the pockets of honest taxpayers with their lies but as this case proves once again we will catch them and there will be price to pay for their fraud.

"People who knowingly withhold information or deliberately fail to report a change in their circumstances and get benefit as a result are benefit thieves and we will target them with a full range of penalties."

Anyone with information on benefit cheats is urged to call, for free, either the DWP's Fraud Hotline on 0800 854440, or the Local Authority National Benefit Fraud Hotline on 0800 3286340.

Not enough

A benefit cheat who defrauded more than £19,000 from Lewisham Council and the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) has received a 12-week suspended jail sentence following a prosecution by Lewisham Council.

Noel Powell, from Catford, pleaded guilty to four charges under the Social Security and Administration Act 1992. A regular data-matching exercise revealed that Mr Powell had failed to declare that he had over £80,000 in savings when he started claiming benefits.

Mr Powell was prosecuted by Lewisham Council following a joint investigation with the DWP. It was discovered that he had fraudulently claimed £15,406 in Job Seekers Allowance and £4,135 Council Tax Benefits over a period of 6 years.

On 22 February 2012 at Greenwich Magistrates Court Mr Powell was sentenced to 12 weeks in custody suspended for 24 months, and ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work. Mr Powell has since repaid the fraudulently claimed benefits in full but he will also have to pay costs of £1,098.80.

• Benefit thieves do it for the money. They should know they will have to pay back twice what they stole, and that they will get no benefits until they have. A confiscation order should be made immediately.

Benefits fraud sentencing

Julia Ann Conisbee, from Potters Bar, made false claims in applications for income support, Employment Support Allowance, and housing and council tax benefits between 2008 and 2010. The total amount she fraudulently claimed was £20,671 - a single person fraud. She was jailed for 20 weeks when she appeared at St Albans Crown Court for sentencing.

Steven Thorley, from Stretford, dishonestly obtained income support, incapacity benefit, disability allowance and housing and council tax benefit amounting to £22,385. He failed to tell the authorities after he started paid employment as a lorry driver. His claim to disability allowance was based on limited mobility with back problems for which he received injections. He was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison suspended for two years, and a 15-week curfew.

Zoe Gannon from Sutton wrongly claimed £21.081 in a single person fraud. She must complete 120 hours of unpaid work and pay £500 costs.

Consistency in sentencing?

Grandfather jailed for benefit fraud

A granded who claimed more than £68,000 in disability benefits while playing golf twice a week was jailed.

Thomas Smith, 65, said he was crippled with asthma but managed to spend 12 years regularly walking around West Derby Golf Club.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the former greengrocer gave up his business in 1998 while suffering a disability.

But the genuine claims he made at the time were not updated when he got better.

He illegally claimed a total of £68,441 between June 1998 and April 2011.

Smith, from Kirkby, admitted a single charge of failing to notify of a change in circumstances.

His barrister, Patrick McLoughlin, asked for mercy saying his client was “terrified of prison”.

Judge David Aubrey QC said Smith told the Department for Work and Pensions he had trouble walking, would black out and fall up to four times a day and even had trouble shaving.

He said Smith would have been jailed for a year after a trial but reduced his sentence to eight months because of his guilty plea of which he will serve less than half.

Where's our money?

A mother who fiddled more than £80,000 worth of state benefits has been jailed.

Mum of three Victoria Tighe used some of the illicit tax-free cash to set up two trust funds for her children, Stafford crown court heard.

For nearly seven years, Tighe carried on claiming as a single parent when she was living with her partner, Adrian Holland.

Laura Hobson, prosecuting, said the total amount of income support, housing and council tax benefits claimed was almost £81,000.

Tighe, 44, admitted two charges of benefit fraud, dishonestly failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions of a change in her circumstances.

The charges cover a period between January 27, 2004 and December 8, 2010.

She was jailed for nine months by Judge Paul Glenn, who told her:

This was calculated and repeated dishonesty.

The overpayment here is almost £81,000, a tax free income of £10,000 a year. Mr Holland was employed for the most part, he was the named driver on the vehicle you insured. His wages were paid into your bank account.

You didn’t voluntarily desist, you were caught. You lied in the course of your interviews.

You claimed to have been the victim of domestic abuse. There is no evidence to corroborate that.

Your claim that Mr Holland didn’t contribute to the children isn’t borne out by the fact his wages were paid into your bank account.

You had sufficient spare money to set up two child trust funds — I accept there is no evidence in this case of an extravagant lifestyle.

What troubles me most is your three children — they are the innocent victims.

I accept you are now remorseful and this isn’t a claim fraudulent from the outset.

These offences are easy to commit and hard to detect, the victims are honest taxpayers.”

Steve Hennessy, defending, said Tighe’s initial claims for benefits were legitimate. She was a mother of three with no previous convictions and a low risk of reoffending.

Consistency in sentencing

A benefit fraudster from Welwyn Garden City who falsely claimed almost £24,000 has been jailed for six months.

Meanwhile, a Tamworth benefit fraud who claimed £51,727 in benefits has been given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

Go figure.

Giving her time to get away

A former police officer who falsely claimed more than £45,000 in benefits while living in Australia has escaped jail.

Vanessa Turner, who worked for Surrey Police, was prosecuted after Croydon Council's corporate anti-fraud team received an anonymous tip off saying she was living in Australia with the father of her three children, Jack Price.

The 32-year-old told authorities she was a single parent living in Park Lane, Croydon, and claimed housing and council tax benefit as well as income support.

Between 2007 and 2010, the mother-of-three received nearly £38,000 in housing benefit, £5,686 of council tax benefit and £3,327 in income support.

During the investigation Miss Turner denied knowing Mr Price and claimed she had been holidaying in Australia.

But council investigators discovered she had been making monthly transfers to Mr Price's bank account, and had made payments to a shipping company to transport her belongings to Australia.

Mr Price was also found to be the registered owner of the flat where she was claiming housing benefit.

Miss Turner was given a 12-month suspended sentence at Croydon Crown Court on March 8, after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing.

Judge Timothy Stowe described the crime as deliberate, systematic fraud, adding she had disguised herself as an honest tenant and had deceived both the council and the Department of Work and Pensions.

He ordered her to complete 160 hours unpaid work and pay £2,258.60 in court costs. The council will now seek to recover the £45,000 benefit claim.

• Not good enough. A confiscation order should be made immediately.
  
  She'll probably be off before we get our money back.

Shropshire Council fails

Shropshire Council is telling us that cheats have falsely claimed more than £420,000 in housing and council tax benefits in Shropshire in the last 12 months.

But they'll find less than the £597,060 they found in 2010/11. Others report benefit fraud going up as the country falls on harder times. Not Shropshire. It's failing.

The authority has 25,000 claimants for housing and council tax benefit and pays out £80million each year. Between April last year and this February, fraudsters claimed a total of £311,950 in housing benefit and £108,153 in council tax - less than the year before, when £457,900 was overpaid in housing benefit and £139,160 in council tax.

However, the figures show a rise in welfare fraud, with £174,232 paid out so far this year, compared to £101,253 in 2011/12.

Shropshire Council said 58 people had been prosecuted since April, with 49 given financial penalties, and another 99 were cautioned.

Financial penalties are set at 30% of the overpayment, which the claimant has to pay back on top of the benefit money. This has brought in an extra £20,682 this year.

Shropshire Council is still failing.

Benefits cheat in wheelchair was champion archer

A "wheelchair-bound" benefits cheat who claimed £60,000 in handouts was actually a champion archer who represented Britain at international championships.

Terry Peake, 64, stated he could only walk 50 to 75 yards over a period of 30 minutes, before needing to rest, needed assistance to dress, bath and go to the toilet.

He also used a wheel chair when he went out because he had trouble standing up following a serious car accident in 1994 which left him disabled, with limited mobility.

But he was caught after DWP officials discovered he had represented Britain in archery at the World Masters Games in Melbourne in 2002 - then set up his own business.

He was a member of the Rochdale Company of Archers and in 1999 he won the Grand Northern title.

Investigators secretly filmed him as he pulled a trailer across a field as he operated a business, trading specialised license plates over the web.

When he was caught, Peake he did a runner from Britain went to Thailand where he found himself a Thai bride and jetted off to Australia where pictures of him emerged frolicking in a swimming pool.

Peake, of Rochdale, Greater Manchester was eventually arrested in February this year, at Birmingham Airport after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

At Bolton Crown Court he was jailed for nine months after he pleaded guilty to fraudulently claiming a total of £62, 941.29, between October 2002 and May 2007.

More

Social housing fraud presentation

The CIH SE Regional Conference included a presentation on social housing fraud.

The speaker reports National Fraud Authority estimates that tenancy fraud costs around £900 million per year. Conservative estimates put the number of homes that are unlawfully occupied at around 50,000, but that figure could be much higher. If you then calculated the cost of re-housing those people who have been displaced by tenancy fraudsters, the costs would be several billion pounds. As he says, it's not just a London problem.

The speaker then discusses the types of fraud and the government consultation that is out on criminalising social housing fraud.

It's an important offence. Let's hope councils tackle it with the seriousness it deserves.

Incapacity benefit update

Figures for the first 141,100 incapacity benefits claimants to start the reassessment process show 37% of those whose claims have been concluded have been found fit for work.

Subletting tenant is jailed

A London council claims it has won a "landmark" case against unlawful subletting in which a tenant has been sentenced to 16 weeks in prison.

It's the first such case Westminster City Council has won under the Fraud Act 2006.

Mr Herminio Nascimento, 42, a former council tenant of a two bedroom property on the Westbourne Park Estate, has been sentenced to 16 weeks in prison for subletting a council house property whilst living with his partner in a property they jointly own in Crawley, Sussex.

The council has been awarded £7,100 in legal costs for the case.

It is estimated that 160,000 tenants unlawfully sub-let their homes at a cost of £5bn a year to the taxpayer.

Westminster is calling upon the Government to incentivise and not penalise local authorities for tackling the issue by granting them greater powers to prevent "ongoing exploitation" of the system.

Cllr Lindsay Hall, Chairman of Westminster Council’s Housing Benefit Fraud Group, said:

We will not stand for those who think they can exploit and cheat a vital support system that is in place to protect and house our most vulnerable residents.

Currently, Westminster has over 1,000 families waiting to be moved to a larger property and meanwhile a minority of tenants think they can get away with earning a fast buck by renting out much needed homes.

This is just a small victory for the council but much more needs to be done to allow local authorities to take action against what should be a criminal offence.

Speaking at the sentencing, District Judge Snow said;

Council housing in the UK is under great pressure and this is particularly true for housing in central London. It is important that councils, Westminster in particular, can allocate property where most needed.

You sublet your council property for profit. When confronted, you lied about it and you lied, you lied and you lied.

I am duty bound to deter both you and anyone else tempted to sublet council property.

Patchy detection of tenancy fraud

Seventy one per cent of councils in Britain did not detect a single instance of tenancy fraud last year despite an estimated 28,000 cases in local authority stock.

(The report uses this figure despite estimates that there may be as many as 150,000 social housing tenants sub-letting their properties in London alone.)

That is the finding from research published by information group Callcredit, based on Freedom of Information Act requests and existing data.

The study estimates local authorities across Britain identified 2,140 cases of tenancy fraud last year, giving a detection rate of less than 10%. It found 69% of local authorities in England did not detect any cases of tenancy fraud in 2011.

The situation was worse in Scotland and Wales where 85% and 88% of local authorities respectively did not identify any tenancy fraud cases.

Within England the figures for non-detecting local authorities ranged from 18% in London up to 83% in the east midlands.

The research found only 15% of local authorities had a strategy for tackling tenancy fraud. 85% of councils with a dedicated strategy or team identified cases of fraud, compared with only 19% of the councils without a strategy.

The most common type of fraud was unlawful subletting, which accounted for 40% of cases, closely followed by non occupation, which accounted for 38%. The other main types of fraud concerned applications and successions.

Andrew Davis, director of public sector at Callcredit, said:

Regrettably public sector fraud is soaring and one of the biggest areas is tenancy fraud. It is a sad fact of life that wherever social housing is found, tenancy fraud is too.

Clearly from the results of our survey it is clear to see that those local authorities that do have dedicated strategy and fraud investigation teams are beginning to yield results.

More social housing fraud

A tenant of a two-bedroom property in London had applied for a transfer to a three-bedroom home on the basis of overcrowding, despite owning and living in a property she bought in another area.

The unnamed tenant – who lived in Bedfont, London - has now handed back her keys, following an investigation by Hounslow Homes’ Tenancy Team.

Without informing Hounslow Homes, she had previously bought a property in another area and lived there for several years while renting out her Council property.

The fraud has been uncovered after her bid for a three-bedroom property was successful.

She then evicted the tenants in the council's two-bedroom property and temporarily moved back in, renting out the property she had purchased in another area.

The tenant was interviewed and initially denied the allegations. However, once shown evidence gathered during the course of the investigation, her tenancy was terminated by Hounslow Homes – an ALMO that manages 16,500 properties for the council.

Hounslow Homes’ Tenancy Team says it now has reached its target of repossessing 60 properties annually.

Godfrey Hamilton, Hounslow Homes’ Tenancy Services Manager, said:

Of the 60 properties, at least 12 have been three-bedroom properties which have now been refurbished and made available to tenants on the housing list.

Tenancy fraud is not tolerated but we’re dependent to a large extent on tenants reporting suspicious behaviour which is always treated in confidence.”

In this case, the issue was brought to the team's attention by a neighbour. It was through a combination of visits to the property, witness statements by both neighbours and sub tenants, and data checking that the team was successful in evicting the fraudulent tenant.

Hounslow Homes says it has been successful in all cases where tenants have faced court action for Tenancy Fraud.

Benefit fraud in South Staffs

Almost 70 benefits cheats who conned more than £220,000 from taxpayers have been caught by fraud investigators in South Staffordshire over the past year.

A dedicated fraud squad at the council uncovered and launched cases against 68 people, including 18 successful prosecutions, smashing their target of 50 over the financial year.

Council leader Brian Edwards, today welcomed the figures, which add up to £224,436.30 of overpaid benefits. He said: “Benefits are there to help those who really need them.”

“At a time when we’re all feeling the pinch it’s frustrating that a small minority think they can get away with claiming something which they know they’re not entitled to.

These latest figures show that we’re serious about cracking down on benefit fraud,” he added.

The figures include £124,686.53 of housing benefit fraudulently claimed, plus £34,977.91 of council tax benefit and £64,771.86 in benefits claimed from the Department of Work and Pensions, which includes job seekers’ allowance and disability benefit.

Misreporting benefit "fraud"

A reader asks:

You talk about people commiting fraud through claiming benefits they are not entitled to, I would like to know your opinions on this subject that is affecting me.

My ex husband keeps reporting my now husband for working (he is disabled and cannot walk and by the way he has worked up until he was 50 and due to the jobs is in the state he is now).

This is causing stress even though we have not done anything wrong. How long do we have to keep putting up with this? By all means report the fraudsters, but what about the innocent ones who are harrassed by the DWP?

If a person is informing the DWP I think they should leave a contact number for them to make sure it is genuine. Only the DWP will know the number. If it is genuine, they have no problem. If it is not, they should be prosecuted for giving false information and wasting time.

Benefit thief's sentence cut

A Kidderminster man who claimed £36,000 in benefits despite inheriting £79,000 has had his 12-month jail sentence halved on appeal.

Stephen Harper, 54, from Birchen Coppice, was sentenced by Kidderminster magistrates last month after pleading guilty to making false claims and failing to notify a change of circumstances.

Prosecutor Scott Coughtrie told Worcester Crown Court that Harper had inherited £79,000 from an uncle and aunt. He did not disclose this when claiming benefit although he did reveal later that his girlfriend owned a house.

As a result of not revealing his capital assets, he had been paid income support, housing and council tax benefit. Searches of his bank account revealed he had more than £32,000.

Sophie Lomas, for Harper, said he was of previous good character and had been honest and made frank admissions when he was investigated. He had already spent 13 days in custody and she submitted that the magistrates court sentence was excessive.

The money from the inheritance had been paid in "dribs and drabs" and he had squandered much of it on his three children and three step-children.

Judge Toby Hooper QC, sitting with magistrates, said it was a case of multiple fraud over a period of time and there had been deliberate concealment of assets but it was felt that the 52-jail sentence was excessively severe so the appeal would be allowed and the period reduced to 26 weeks.

Middlesborough benefit thief jailed

A woman has been jailed for a seven-year, £28,500 benefit fraud.

Janet Fawcett, 57, took state handouts while failing to reveal that she was living with a man. She falsely claimed £28,557 in housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support between 2004 and 2011.

Judge John Walford imprisoned Fawcett for eight months, telling her: “There is an all-too-prevalent sense nowadays – a bogus one – of entitlement to other people’s money which causes people to defraud the benefits system.

“Those who defraud the benefits system harm everybody. The truly needy suffer as a result. And so it is that the courts have to take a stern line with those who commit this sort of offence.

“The fact of the matter is an apparently lenient sentence could encourage other people either to claim benefits or to continue to do so.”

Fawcett declared that she was living alone when she was in fact living with Eric Hugill, Teesside Crown Court heard.

She had her benefits suspended for investigations in 2009, but she persisted after this warning.

Jail for £100k benefit thief

An Algerian benefit cheat who swindled £100,000 in benefits has been jailed for two years – and will be deported when he is released.

Olivier Isaac, 43, from Holloway, admitted using a fake French passport to obtain social security payments.

Last year, the Gazette reported concerns that up to £1million could be have been claimed fraudulently in Islington by North African nationals using fake French documents.

In passing sentence at Blackfriars Crown Court, Judge Hillen recommended that Isaac be deported when released from jail.

He gave Isaac credit for the guilty plea and previous good character, but added it was “difficult to describe someone as being of good character when they have committed offences over seven years”.

Cllr Richard Greening, Islington Council’s executive member for finance, said: “I commend the work of the council’s fraud team in helping to bring Isaac to justice and it is good to see that the court has taken a tough line in this case.

“The two year prison sentence is a reflection of the seriousness of this crime.”

Isaac started using the forged passport in 2004 and the council say the fraud would have been detected due to more advanced tests.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of using a false instrument to obtain social security benefits.

Double standards

A Judge has been convicted of benefit fraud – but his or her name is being kept secret, reports the Daily Record.

The Crown Office are even refusing to say if the fraudster is a High Court judge, sheriff or justice of the peace.

Legal campaigner and blogger Peter Cherbi discovered he or she was one of six judges convicted of crimes since 2005.

Five were found guilty of road traffic offences but one admitted fiddling benefits while he or she passed judgment on other criminals.

Officials also refuse to reveal how much was stolen or where the fraud took place.

The mystery judge was convicted under section 111A(1)(a) of the Social Security Administration Act 1992.

While this identity is protected, the Crown Office have issued two press releases in the past four months naming others convicted under exactly the same section.

One of them, who asked not to be identified, said: “My name, date of birth and where I’m from are online.

“It was wrong but it is even more important for the public to know about a judge convicted of the same fraud.”

Labour justice spokesman Lewis Macdonald MSP said: “I would have thought the same rules should apply for members of the public and judges.”

The Crown Office keep a “hard copy file” of the six but say keeping the details secret is in the “public interest”.

Cherbi said: “People in front of a judge should know if they have a criminal record – that’s in the public interest.”

He also asked the Judicial Office of Scotland to reveal the name under freedom of information law, without success.

It is far more in the public interest for the name of the criminal Judge to be disclosed. Why should a Judge get privacy?

Jail for benefit thief

A benefits cheat claimed almost £16,000 in income and council tax support — while renting out two properties he owned.

George Furness was jailed for eight weeks by Oldham magistrates after admitting to making the fraudulent claims over five years. The 54-year-old continued to claim benefits despite raking in rental income from the two houses in High Street, Lees.

The magistrates heard that Furness began to illegally receive council tax support in October, 2005.

Having previously left his job as a maintenance technician at Oldham Athletic due to health problems, he applied for council tax benefit, the guidelines of which state that adults on a low income, or no income at all, may qualify for a discount.

However, he failed to inform the authorities of the rental income making his application illegal. He made four other claims over the following five years.

In July, 2007, he made similar claims for Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) and Employment and Support Allowance, which replaced Incapacity Benefit, and again failed to declare his rental income.

Between October, 2005 and May, 2011, Furness was overpaid in council tax benefit to the sum of £8,365. He was also paid £7,424 in JSA between July, 2007 and January 2010, a total £15,789.

Furness claimed to have been genuinely unaware of the need to declare his rental income, saying he didn’t read the council tax benefit documentation correctly.

Asif Akram, defending, said: “Mr Furness did not believe he had to declare any other properties at the time, he believes this was an honest mistake. He didn’t read the relevant documents properly, and would have declared it, had he done so.

“He says the rental income from the houses was paid to his wife —they’re now divorced.

“He’s had to sell one of his existing properties to satisfy the divorce, so is able to pay back the total sum, in full, today.”

Despite the mitigation, magistrates jailed Furness for eight weeks with immediate effect.

• Benefit thieves do it for the money. They should know they will have to pay back twice what they stole, and that they will get no benefits until they have. A confiscation order should be made immediately.

Jail for another golfing benefits thief

A man who was caught on camera playing golf despite claiming he could not walk more than 50m has been jailed for a £12,500 benefit fraud.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Robert Cave, 50, was filmed playing golf despite telling the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) he was disabled.

The man, of Mansfield, started claiming disability living allowance in 1996 for a genuine degenerative condition.

Cave, jailed for four months, did not reveal that his condition had improved.

Sentencing, Judge Andrew Hamilton said:

You don't get a 15 golf handicap overnight. He must have been playing for a long time.

You are a thorough and utter liar and cheat.

This is one of the worst cases of someone who is flagrantly flouting the rules and creating public indignation.

Judge Hamilton added the case was "most unfair" because other people had genuine claims.

Sian Fellowes, senior fraud manager for DWP, said after the hearing: "We received some anonymous information from a member of the public, which is usually the way we find out about cases of this nature.

"He was seen to be engaged in various activities that were very much at odds with what he said his capabilities were in order to claim the benefit.

"He was seen loading things into his car but most compellingly he was seen playing golf."

She said Cave had been seen playing regularly once a week on an 18-hole golf course at Norwood Park, near Southwell.

A career of thieving

A woman illegally claimed more than £24,000 in housing benefit, by using a false identity.

Olubimpe Salami, from Stockwell, had a job at Selfridges but gave a different name - Adeola Kemy Oragbade - to her employer in order to claim benefits - including council tax benefit and jobseekers' allowance - at the same time.

Lambeth Council fraud investigators uncovered the scam after becoming suspicious following a routine check of her details.

They used handwriting analysis of forms she had submitted in both names to confirm that Olumbimpe Salami and Adeloa Kemy Oragbade were in fact the same person.

The investigators also discovered that as well as having a job, she had claimed benefits and jobseekers’ Allowance that she was not entitled to while she was a student at London Metropolitan University between 2003 and 2007.

While at university she had successfully applied for thousands of pounds of student loans and grants.

Ms Salami pleaded guilty to six charges of making false representations and failing to declare her change of circumstances in order to obtain housing benefit and Jobseekers’ Allowance.

She was sentenced in February to nine months imprisonment suspended for two years. She will also have to carry out 180 hours' community service, have a criminal record, and will have to pay back the £41,000 she illegally claimed.

• Benefit thieves do it for the money. They should know they will have to pay back twice what they stole, and that they will get no benefits until they have. A confiscation order should be made immediately.

Do our officials never learn?

A mother has escaped jail despite pretending she had eight children in a £42,000 benefits scam - h/t Dave.

Sarah Jane Smith, 41, even pretended that she and her two real children were disabled so that she could claim even more cash.

Yes despite the false claims, stretching back to 2005, Smith, from Manchester, was spared jail after the judge heard she was fighting breast cancer for the second time.

Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court was told that it was the second time Smith had carried out the scam.

She had previously cheated taxpayers out of £27,854 in a four-year scam which began in 2005.

The matter was dealt with in the civil courts, and she was ordered to repay the money.

But Smith returned to the fraud soon afterwards, and began to invent more children after falling into debt.

She submitted 25 bogus claims between October 2009 and August 2010.

As well as claiming for made-up children, Smith also told benefit officials that she, her teenage son and adult daughter all had disabilities.

Simon Blakebrough, prosecuting, said the initial claims for child tax credit had been legitimate - but suspicions were raised as new children were added.

He said: 'A number of similar calls, similar claims, were made by the defendant over that period.

'She made a call claiming for fictitious children.

'She did the same again about a week later, claiming for other children that did not exist. As a result of an investigation, Ms Smith was arrested.

'She was interviewed and gave a no comment reply to all the questions put to her.'

Smith, from Almond Close, Pendleton, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to one count of being knowingly concerned in fraudulent activity with a view to obtain payment of tax credit. She broke down in tears in the dock.

The court heard that Inland Revenue officers began their criminal investigation in 2009, after becoming suspicious as the amounts she claimed - and her number of children - increased year after year.

And the case gets to court in 2012. This is beyond dozy.

Judge Adrian Smith handed her a six-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered her to complete 120 hours of unpaid work.

Describing her earlier scam, the judge said: 'You were not prosecuted. You were dealt with through civil jurisdiction.

'You do not come before the court as a person of good character but there is another side to you which impresses people.'

The mother, who is currently paying back the £27,000 she claimed in her initial scam, now faces repaying the second amount as well.

Austin Welch, defending Smith, who volunteers for two charities, said she made the calls because of debt resulting from 'appalling financial mismanagement'.

He said: 'It is one of the most stupid offences. It would almost always have resulted in Ms Smith being caught. She is extremely sorry. It was just stupidity that led her to do this.'

• It's more liked criminality on her part, compounded by criminal negligence by officials, who should be disciplined.

Benefit thieves not pursued

One in four arrest warrants slapped on fraudsters are still outstanding two years after being issued.

The news came days after The Sun launched its Beat The Cheat campaign for a clampdown on bogus claimants who pocket £1.2billion a year.

Of 1,188 arrest warrants issued between November 2009 and July 2011, only 869 led to cheats being nabbed, according to Government stats. The remaining 319 have evaded arrest and are still at liberty.

Tory MP Priti Patel, who uncovered the figures through Parliamentary questions, called for action:

These figures highlight the huge scale of the challenge that is facing the Government.

Hard-working taxpayers need to know we are doing everything we can to punish these people.

Fraudsters need to know there is no place to hide — that they will be tracked down and they will face justice.

Hundreds of Sun readers have responded by calling the National Benefit Fraud Helpline on 0800 854 440.

But some have voiced concern that tip-offs they have given in the past have not been acted on.

Jail for £665k benefit frauds

A womanising fraudster who hijacked the identities of soldiers and nurses in a £1.3million benefits plot has  been jailed for six years.

Chibuikem Uzoma-Ubani, 29, persuaded several lovers to help him launder the profits from the swindle that targeted tax credits and Sure Start maternity grants.

Denisa Camacho, 28, of Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire, and Katrina Papiernikova, 27, of Romford, Essex both had relationships with Uzoma-Ubani after arriving in the UK from Slovakia and were accused of turning a blind eye to his activities.

Uzoma-Ubani, of Romford, Essex, married Camacho in 2004, then divorced her and had two children by Papiernikova.

The women both insisted they knew nothing about his crooked schemes and were both cleared of money laundering, but a third lover Ornela Miguel, 26, admitted the offence.

Uzoma-Ubani and fellow Nigerian Leonard Nwannenah, 33, of Dagenham, Essex, opened a ‘bewildering’ 752 bank accounts using the names of hard-working medics and members of the armed forces over a six-year period.

The pair were jailed for six years each while Miguel was handed a three-month sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Nwanneneh’s younger brother Okechi Nwannenah, 30, of Dagenham and Okechi’s wife Jennifer Okonkwo, 29, also allowed their bank accounts to be used to launder the proceeds.

Okechi was conditionally discharged for 18 months while Okonkwo will be sentenced later.

Prosecutor Peter Finnigan QC said the gang netted at least £665,000 and would have made £1.3million had all of the bogus applications for benefit payments been successful.

He said: ‘This case concerns the sophisticated and professional fraud operation which went on for a number of years.

‘This was done by targeting the UK’s benefit system and by cheque fraud.

‘They used a bewildering number of post office and bank accounts which numbered in the hundreds.

‘Some of the accounts were in the names of the fraudsters themselves, some were in the names of others who were willing to help them, and yet others were in the names of identities which had been hijacked by the fraudsters.

‘They did not get away with everything they tried because fraudulent applications were weeded out.

‘In one such instance, a serving member of the army, had his identity hijacked, and not only were cheques diverted to Mr Uzoma-Ubami, but applications for benefits were made in his name, albeit in Uzoma-Ubami’s hand writing.’

The prosecutor added that Uzoma-Ubami had 159 bank accounts, either in his name or an alias, and police seized £200,000 from them.

Leonard Nwanneneh controlled at least 42 accounts and admitted he had used many more after illegally entering the country.

‘The total number of bank accounts was 752, used in the identity frauds,’ said Mr Finnigan.

‘Of those 752, 282 and were active accounts in that they received the proceeds of the frauds, and during the course of the investigation over £1million had passed through them.

‘The remaining 360 or so accounts were being prepared for future frauds.’

Sentencing at The Old Bailey today, Judge John Price said: ‘It was an extremely sophisticated fraud using three different types; intercepting cheques, tax credit fraud, and false maternity grants.

‘These required several false identities, and false national insurance numbers.

‘In some cases they assumed the identity of nurses, falsifying their pin numbers to potentially have taken £1.3million over a number of years.

‘This was a substantial fraud that targeted the benefits system.

‘Tax credits are there to help poor people, the money you took, took it away from them.’

Jailing Uzoma-Ubani for six years he said: ‘I have no doubt that you were a leader of this group, who organised it and kept it running.

‘I will sentence you on the basis that it was sheer good luck, that you didn’t manage to acquire the full £1.3 million.

‘If you have any money hidden away, the authorities will find it, and you will pay it back, or you will spend more time in prison.’

Sentencing Leonard Nwannenah to six years jail Judge Price said: ‘The worst thing about you in this case is that you got your brother and his wife involved, and for that you should feel guilty.’

Speaking after sentence a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: ‘Uzoma-Ubani and his co-conspirators had attempted to swindle the Government departments and many individual victims out of more than £1.3m.

‘Their sole motivation appears to have been greed; to fund their lifestyles.

‘This was a long and complex investigation which involved preparing 5,000 exhibits, analysing more than 100 fingerprints, 800 bank accounts and preparing more than 25,000 pages of evidence.

‘The conviction of this gang should act as a warning to others that the UK’s law enforcement agencies will use all the methods at our disposal to root out their corrupt practices and bring those responsible to justice.’

• Were any of them UK citizens?

£34k benefit thief had £172k in the bank

A Lanarkshire woman with £172,000 in her bank account continued to claim income support to the tune of £34,000.

Carol Foy (47) received an endowment payment from Scottish Widows and at one point her bank account boasted a balance of £172,000.

But she did not tell the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) about the money, and between May 26, 2005, and September 10, 2008, claimed just under £34,000 of income support she should never have received.

The fraud was revealed in June, 2010, when the DWP received a tip-off about the endowment.

Why did the benefit payments stop in 2008 when the fraud was only revealed in 2010?

Foy appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and pleaded guilty to obtaining money she was not entitled to and failing to inform the DWP of a change in her financial circumstances.

Liam Haggart, fiscal depute, said: “[Foy] first claimed benefits before 1994. She claimed she was an unemployed single parent.

“She completed review forms periodically thereafter.

“She would have received information leaflets outlining changes that required to be reported.”

Mr Haggart explained that following the tip-off in 2010, the DWP checked Foy’s capital levels between May 2005 and September 2008.

They discovered that on May 27 2005, she had received an endowment payment of £46,075 from Scottish Widows.

Mr Haggart said a transfer of £44,000 was then made from a second bank account on June 1 2006 and that her balance on September 16 2008 was found to be £172,000.

Foy was called in for an interview about the money. She told them that she did not think her level of capital would affect her claim and that she had received a critical illness payment from Scottish Widows.

The DWP calculated how much she had been overpaid in income support and arrived at the figure of £33,999.61.

The court heard this was being paid back at £20 a fortnight.

• You cannot be serious! Where's the money gone? Did it vanish after the long investigation started?

Sheriff Douglas Brown deferred sentencing Foy, of Laurel Drive, Wishaw, until March 23 for a social work report to be prepared.

• Hint. Benefit thieves do it for the money. They should know they will have to pay back twice what they stole, and that they will get no benefits until they have. A confiscation order should be made immediately.
  
  Any benefit thieves who don't go to prison should also have to do community service.

Violent criminals get more housing benefit

More than 2,000 rapists, robbers and muggers are being paid over the odds under the cushy rules, reports The Sun.

Ministers have lifted a cap on payouts to dangerous ex-offenders because they find it hard to get a flatmate to share with them. But law-abiding claimants still have to share homes.

MPs reacted with fury at the benefits loophole.

Labour's Steve McCabe said: "It's outrageous that when decent people who work hard, play by the rules and pay their way are being squeezed by higher taxes and higher prices, this out-of-touch Government is spending millions on special rules to give criminals a better deal than everyone else."

Single claimants under 35 are paid an allowance equal to the average rent on a room in a shared house.

But violent offenders have now been made exempt to enable them to live alone.

The extra payments will top £5million a year, according to figures obtained by shadow welfare minister Ian Austin.

That means £15million by the next general election.

The TaxPayers' Alliance's Matthew Sinclair said: "Taxpayers will be disgusted at having to pick up the bill for violent criminals to get a place on their own."

Some criminals are also claiming the benefit even though they do not qualify. The allowance is only supposed to be paid after serving 13 weeks.

But those with longer sentences are also being given the money. PM David Cameron promised to target housing benefit in his welfare crackdown.

Woman stole £30k in housing benefit

A woman stole £30,000 in housing benefit by claiming she rented a room from her husband.

Susan Sime, 37, was sentenced to 240 hours community service after it emerged on Tuesday that she has given £25,000 back to the Department of Work and Pensions.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard how Sime obtained tens of thousands of pounds in council tax and housing benefits in a fraud which lasted almost five years.

Sime, from Edinburgh, repeatedly lied about her marital status.

She pretended she was a single woman who was renting her home in the Scottish capital from another man. In actual fact, she was a married woman who was using housing benefit illegally to pay the mortgage on the property she stayed in with her husband.

Sime pleaded guilty to committing fraud between July 2005 and March 31, 2010 at a hearing last month.

Sentence was deferred until Tuesday in order for the court to obtain reports.

On Tuesday, Sime was also told Crown Office prosecutors would take her to court at some point in the future in a proceeds of crime action.

At the earlier hearing, depute fiscal Isobel Clark told the court how Sime claimed she was renting the house in Hutchison View, Edinburgh from a man she didn't know. She also told them that she was a spinster.

However, officials grew suspicious about her claims in early 2010 and discovered that Sime owned the property with a man called Craig Sime. Anti fraud investigators discovered Sime was also married to Craig and they arrested her shortly afterwards.

On Tuesday, defence lawyer Peter O'Neill said his client had paid back £25,000 to the Department of Work and Pensions. He also said that she was continuing to pay off the remaining sum.

Mr O'Neill argued that this gave Sheriff Scott the option not to send Sime to prison.

He added: "She feels completely stupid for letting this situation arise. She is deeply sorry for committing this offence. She has no previous convictions. She is not known to the court. She is unlikely to offend again."

After Mr O'Neill's address, depute fiscal Michelle Young told the court Sime would be the subject of a Crown Office Proceeds of Crime action. The date for the hearing will be fixed at some point in the future.

Passing sentence, Sheriff Scott said he was persuaded not to jail her.

He added: "This is an extremely serious matter. However, I am persuaded that I do not need to jail you. You will be sentenced to 240 hours community service as a direct alternative to custody. Should you appear before me again, I will sentence you as if this sentence had never been imposed."

• Benefit thieves do it for the money. They should know they will have to pay back twice what they stole, and that they will get no benefits until they have. A confiscation order should be made immediately.

Meet the middle class benefit cheats

That's the headline on Melissa Kite's waffle piece. All she does is give examples of a few alleged middle class benefit cheats, some of them anecdotal.

What she doesn't say is whether her pawsh friends have done what is plainly their civic duty and shopped them.

Assets benefit frauds in South Lakeland

South Lakeland District Council initiated prosecutions after fraud officers’ suspicions were raised while checking high-interest bank accounts.

Ian Bevins pleaded guilty to five charges of benefit fraud, totalling more than £23,700 for housing and council tax benefit.

He did not reveal having ‘significant savings’ that could have been used to pay rent and council tax.

Bevins was sentenced to a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, 250 hours of unpaid work, and ordered to pay £560 costs. He has since repaid the over-payment in full.

Robert Matthews admitted dishonestly making a false representation to claim benefits totalling more than £11,500.

He also failed to declare the full extent of his savings.

Matthews was made subject to a community order for 12 months, including 160 hours of unpaid work, and ordered to pay costs of £355.

He has paid the benefit money back in full.

Coun Graham Vincent, SLDC’s portfolio holder for resources, said:

The council will continue to take a tough stance on benefit fraud.

We will always prosecute where deliberate fraud is uncovered, as that is only fair to the vast majority of people who are law-abiding council tax payers.

If people have made genuine mistakes and are having problems understanding the benefit system, they should talk to the council, or one of the advice agencies and get help as quickly as possible.

People caught cheating the benefit system face an unlimited fine, or up to seven years’ imprisonment, or both.

• A fair enough distinction, and this site does not publicise cases of people who seem to have become genuinely confused.
  
  Benefit thieves do it for the money. They should know they will have to pay back twice what they stole.
  
  That would probably have deterred these two.

Once bitten ... twice bitten

A two-time Ipswich benefit cheat is in jail today after fiddling allowances of more than £13,000 while he was working a chicken factory.

It is the second time in just over a year that Safeen Rashid Qadir has been convicted of claiming benefits he was not entitled to.

The 38-year-old appeared before South East Suffolk Magistrates Court on charges of failing to declare earnings while in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.

Qadir first appeared before magistrates for benefit fraud offences in November 2010.

On that occasion he was found guilty of failing to declare to the benefit paying agencies that he was working. Qadir was sentenced to a 200 hours unpaid work order for that conviction.

However, during his latest court appearance magistrates heard Qadir had since been working full-time at a chicken processing plant at Witham in Essex.

While employed there he was earning in excess of £200 a week. However, despite being in employment he continued to sign-on as unemployed.

As a result he claimed and received the full job seekers allowance, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

In total, Qadir, received over £13,500 in state benefits to which he was not entitled. The money will now be recovered from him by Ipswich Borough Council and the DWP.

Oh yes? Did they get the last lot back?

Sentencing Qadir to eight weeks in prison, the magistrates said that he had no respect for this country or its benefit system

After Qadir was jailed, a spokesman for Ipswich Borough Council said:

This should serve as a warning to others who attempt to defraud the benefit system.

This was a particularly serious case as it was not the first time Mr Qadir had falsely claimed benefits.

We believe the sentence shows the courts also share our view and will take matters such as this very seriously.

But Ipswich council still doled the money out.

No jail for £103k benefits thief

A doctor who fraudulently claimed more than £100,000 in benefits while secretly owning a Spanish holiday home and receiving an NHS pension has walked free from court.

Dr Barbara Longley, 60, made repeated claims for benefits over six years from Brighton and Hove City Council but failed to declare her three-bedroom property in Alicante.

The mother-of-two, from Hove, Sussex, also hid an NHS pension and a bank account containing several thousand pounds.

Longley admitted ten counts of fraudulently claiming housing and council tax benefit and income support totalling £103,645 at Hove Crown Court.

But she walked free from court after being given a suspended sentence.

The court heard she had already paid back more than £70,000 by selling her Spanish property and will have to repay the remaining £31,849 owed to the council and the Department of Work and Pensions.

Rowan Jenkins, prosecuting, said: ‘Dr Longley made a series of applications for benefits, the first in May 2003, when she completed an application for housing and council tax benefit.

‘She stated her only income was child benefit and that she held no other property.

‘She didn’t declare she had a £6,500 a year pension from the National Health Service.’

The court heard Longley then continued to make benefit claims until 2009.

Mr Jenkins added: ‘She stated she was finding it hard to pay her bills for rent and other bills as well.

‘She said her only income was from benefits and didn’t mention her pension income at all.’

Longley trained as a doctor and held several posts within the medical profession before being diagnosed with bi-polar disorder.

Nick Hamlin, defending the single mother-of-two, asked the court to show ‘mercy’ because of her mental health problems.

He said: ‘Through most of her adult life she has either been depressed or in a manic mood.

‘Having obtained her qualifications she was struck by this illness and that, on many occasions, leaves her unable to express herself and leads her to errors of judgement.’

Judge Richard Hayward handed Longley a 12 month sentence suspended for two years.

Judge Hayward said: ‘Clearly you are an intelligent woman. You qualified and practised as a doctor for some years but your life has been blighted by mental health illness.’

She was ordered to repay £2,500 court costs.

h/t Dave