Benefit fraud

A woman who owns three houses has been ordered to pay back £143,500 after fraudulently claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, housing benefit and council tax benefit over a span of 22 years.

Josephine Aidoo, 52, from Stamford Hill, used a fake birth certificate to secure a tenancy while she was believed to own a property in Tottenham.

Aidoo was ordered to repay £143,500 at Snaresbrook Crown Court after being convicted of 11 fraud offences which took place between May 1988 and October 2010.

Aidoo was arrested in March 2012 on suspicion of benefit fraud after police secured a search warrant on her home.

The Met’s criminal finance team and Hackney Council investigated for 18 months before pressing charges for 21 offences in 2013.

These included benefit fraud, fraud by false representation relating to the three houses she owned and possession of false identification with intent.

She was sentenced on January 9 this year at Snaresbrook Crown Court to 39 months imprisonment.

Officers then applied for a confiscation hearing for her assets, which included three properties and cash.

During the confiscation proceedings the criminal benefit of £143,500 was granted. Compensation orders of over £95,000 were also granted to Hackney Council and the Department of Work and Pensions, with the remainder going to the Home Office.

Aidoo must pay back the money within six months. Failure to do so will add a further two-and-a-half years to her prison sentence, and she will still be liable to the terms of the confiscation order.

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Two company directors who pocketed tens of thousands of pounds in taxpayers' money from bogus claims for sign language interpreters have avoided prison. (h/t Dave)

Tracy Holliday, 39, and Ian Johnston, 43, sent their children to private school off the back of the £134,000 they made from bogus claims for interpreters and support staff they did not use.

Despite their crimes being branded 'sickening' by the Minister for Disabled People, the pair have walked free from court on suspended sentences.

Teesside Crown Court heard Johnston and Holliday ran the Darlington and Sunderland Deaf Club and were directors of a business 'D-Deaf Development'.

Holliday, who is hard of hearing but has no problem communicating, claimed she needed a highly-qualified sign language interpreter and a specialist note taker because she was profoundly deaf.

Despite claiming thousands of pounds from the government’s Access to Work scheme, witnesses said Holliday had not been supported by anyone over the three year period that claims were made.

She and her partner, both from Darlington, County Durham, also claimed for interpreters for two other members of staff who they said were profoundly deaf and needed support to carry out their duties. In fact they did not.

Neither of the staff had any idea about the scam. Holliday asked them to sign the declaration on bank claim forms, and then used their signatures for the disability claim without their knowledge.

Another two members of staff, paid £7 an hour, were named as their ‘support workers’, and Holliday submitted fake invoices for £25 an hour from them to the government’s Access to Work Fund.

Johnston is said to have pocketed £106,267 in the scams and Holliday made a further £27,797.

Prosecutors said the couple used the three-year fraud to prop up their failing business.

Johnston was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, and Holliday was sentenced to four months' imprisonment, suspended for two years.

Speaking after the case, Minister for Disabled People Mark Harper said: 'This is a sickening example of two people milking a system designed especially to support disabled people to get or keep a job. Access to Work helps over 35,000 disabled people to do their job. More and more disabled people are getting into work thanks to this fund and our Disability Confident campaign - as employers recognise the tremendous skills they bring to business. If any employers think they can misuse Access to Work, then they should think again. We are targeting fraudsters to make sure the money goes to help the talented disabled people who deserve it. I've announced a review into Access to Work to make sure the funding is going to those who need it most.'

Speaking after the case, Johnston claimed the fraud was 'unintentional' and said the couple only pleaded guilty to avoid a lengthy trial.

The DWP says it is committed to having the money returned.

Source & pictures

Handcuffed to a prison officer, wealthy benefits cheat Caroline Foxley headed to custody following fears she was preparing to flee to Russia.

The 59-year-old was suspected of trying to leave the country ahead of her sentencing after attempting to move £40,000 to a bank in Moscow.

A court heard she had also made a fresh application to claim benefits within a day of being convicted last month of illegally taking £20,000 in handouts for ‘pocket money’.

The ‘greedy’ mother-of-two used the welfare system even though she had cash in a Swiss bank from the £306,000 sale of a Cotswolds home which she used to fund her children's expensive private school education.

Foxley was on bail awaiting sentence when she was summoned back to court on Thursday amid fears she was preparing to flee the country.

Prosecutors called for her bail to be rescinded after describing how she had also defied a court order to surrender her passport.

Gloucester Crown Court was told how Foxley made contact on Tuesday with Swiss bank Habibsons, where she had deposited the remains of the money from the £306,000 property sale.

She was said to have been ‘anxious’ to transfer £40,000 from the account to her son’s bank account in Moscow.

Prosecutor Martin Steen said: ‘She still has her passport and is seeking to transfer funds to Moscow, perhaps in preparation for flight. She is also seeking to move it outside the realm where she may be able to make recompense for the loss. In the absence of her abiding by her bail conditions and taking steps to move money we are concerned she will not attend for sentence.’

Judge Jamie Tabor QC agreed to the prosecution’s request and remanded Foxley in custody until sentencing.

He said: ‘This lady has been obtaining benefits for a long time and has a Swiss bank account with a lot of money in it. It would appear it has still got a bit of money in it because she tried to move it earlier this week.’ During her trial, Foxley admitted that the Swiss bank account was in her name, but regarded the money from the sale of the house bought by her late partner as ‘in trust’ for him and, after his death, for their children.

She claimed she did not use the money except to pay for schooling and other expenses for her children.

But trial prosecutors said the money disqualified her from benefits that are only open to those with assets of less than £16,000. Foxley had once qualified for income support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, council tax and housing benefits but only until March 30, 2007 – when she earned £306,000 from the sale of the house near Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire.

She paid the money into a bank account in India and began using it to pay for schooling at Malvern College, Bloxham School in Banbury and Cheltenham Ladies’ College – where fees start at more than £21,000 a year. The remainder of the money was then ‘spirited away’ to Zurich.

Referring to Switzerland’s tight-lipped bankers as ‘the Gnomes of Zurich’, trial prosecutor Stephen Mooney suggested Foxley was keen to make the most of the country’s famously secretive finance laws. He added: ‘No doubt she was taking advantage of the notorious and well-documented reluctance of the Gnomes of Zurich to give out information about their bank accounts.’

Mr Mooney said Foxley had treated the benefits as ‘pocket money to top up a wealthy lifestyle.’

Source

A south-west London house which was sublet for about £40,000 a year had an electricity cable running through a tree branch inside the property, a council has revealed.

Lambeth Council said the wire was fed into the terraced house in Rectory Gardens, Clapham which had been illegally turned into flats.

It said the man acting as landlord was charging £100 per week for each of the eight rooms which shared one bathroom.

Following a court order, the council has repossessed the house.

The Clapham house was one of around 1,200 so-called "shortlife" homes that were handed over to be managed by housing associations and co-operatives in the 1970s, when the council was unable to pay for renovations. But the agreement had continued for decades and it was unclear who should have been managing it.

Councillor Matthew Bennett, cabinet member for housing, said:

The conditions the people in this illegal HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) were living in were truly appalling, and represented a genuine danger to life and limb. It is shocking that someone can make money exploiting people by illegally renting out such dangerous accommodation with no regard for the safety of the people living there."

The council was alerted to the property as part of a programme to reclaim more than 40 buildings which remain operating under the short-life scheme and offer tenants homes with little or no rent.

Any resident displaced because of the action is being put at the top of the local authority's housing list for new accommodation in the borough.

The council said it had made about £58m through the sale of about 1,160 short-life properties.

It is considering whether to take legal action against the landlord.

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A 36-year-old woman from Margate has been jailed for 8 months after she pleaded guilty to wrongfully claiming tax credits and benefits for 4 years.

Emma Truscott claimed tax credits and other benefits as a lone parents while living with her partner for four years.

Between the tax years of 6 April 2010 and 5 April 2014, she received more than £54,000 in benefits to which she was not entitled.

Source

A Liverpool council employee caught falsely claiming £22,000 in benefits is set to keep her job.

Jacqueline Simpson swindled more than £22,000 of taxpayers’ money through dishonest Disability Living Allowance claims but it is unclear if she even faced formal disciplinary action.

The authority defended its position by saying the crime was not linked to council funds – an approach labelled “negligent” by one critic.

Simpson was handed a six month community order and placed on a curfew after being sentenced at Wirral magistrates’ court last month.

Court documents reveal that in 2008 the 54-year-old “dishonestly made a statement or representation to the Department for Work and Pensions which was false” because her physical capabilities were greater than she had stated in the application.

The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed Simpson falsely received £22,466 and “at the time of the offence she was working at Liverpool council”.

The ECHO understands Simpson, believed to work in the council’s Housing Options Service, is set to remain a council employee following her prosecution and a statement from the authority appeared to suggest she may not even face official disciplinary action.

Cllr Steve Radford, leader of the Liberal Group, described this as a “worrying precedent”, adding “once again the city council has taken the line of least resistance”.

He said: “Whilst it’s difficult to comment on individual cases without knowing all of the facts I would expect anyone in a position of access to private and confidential funds or any position of being in charge of disbursement of public funds to have the need to be seen as acting with integrity and competence. Committing benefit fraud of not insignificant monies I think calls that into question and I would expect at the very least to have an investigation into the credibility of the person ... not to ask the question in a professional competence review is an act of negligence by the council.”

A spokesman for the authority said: “The council does not normally comment on matters involving an individual employee, however this case was not linked to fraud involving Liverpool city council funds in any way. In general terms, when an employee is charged with, or convicted of a crime, we assess the situation to determine the potential impact on the employee’s specific job and on their employment in general. In cases where there is a potential impact the council will apply its disciplinary procedures.”

He refused to clarify whether Simpson had faced any formal disciplinary action as a result of her prosecution.

So Liverpool Council would continue to employ a burglar as long as it wasn't in the housing department?

There must be plenty of unemployed people in Liverpool who deserve this job more than this criminal does. But Labour are disciminating in favour of incumbent workers.

Maybe she's a member of a trade union?

Fraud investigations at Dundee City Council were down, now they're up, apparently.

The number of fraud allegations received by Dundee City Council has increased by 25% over the last year. 769 cases of alleged fraud have been referred to the council investigation team this year — compared to 611 cases for the same period last year.

A breakdown of the figures showed 617 were in relation to social security benefit, 39 referrals were for housing tenancy fraud, 18 for blue badge misuse and 92 in relation to the council tax.

The local authority has completed 119 investigations into social security fraud so far this year, 45 of which have resulted in a reduction or termination of benefits. This marks a decrease from the same period last year, which saw 153 investigations completed and 60 cases resulting in benefit amounts being reduced or terminated.

Around £276,000 worth of overpayments have been identified, including around £130,000 in relation to housing or council tax benefit. The council has also carried out 55 investigations into corporate fraud — which includes council tax, tenancy and blue badges — identifying 23 cases.

Around £31,000 of additional council tax revenue and £8,000 in increased parking revenue were identified as a result.

Director of corporate services Marjory Stewart said:

The benefits counter-fraud unit has continued to widen its scope of investigative work. This has resulted in counter-fraud officers investigating identified high-risk areas including the council tax reduction scheme, council tax discounts and exemptions, housing tenancy and blue badge. The number of fraud allegations received by the council has increased by 25% in comparison to the previous year. This is a direct result of corporate fraud work.

In total, 16 cases were referred to the procurator fiscal in relation to benefit fraud, one in relation to blue badge and one in relation to council tax fraud.

Seven cases resulted in guilty verdicts, one in a not guilty verdict, two in administrative penalties and two in administrative cautions.

Recovery of overpayments has either been made or is ongoing in around 75% of benefit fraud cases and in 65% of cases the overpayment has been paid in full.

In 10% of cases deductions are being taken from ongoing benefit entitlement but debtors have failed to put repayment procedures in place in 12% of cases —and 11% of cases have been written off.

Most of this is said to be due to error rather than fraud. (h/t David)

City council bosses have written off nearly £3 million of debt resulting from people in Leicester being paid too much in housing benefits this year.

Officials say they will not be able to recover the overpayments from benefits recipients in low-income households.

The overpayments are largely down to errors, where claimants should have told the council about changes to their circumstances that affect their entitlement to payments, rather than fraud. They can tell the difference? The authority's finance director Alison Greenhill has told councillors £2.8 million has been written off this year and the council still has on overall £9.5 million of overpaid housing benefits due which has built up "over many years".

Ms Greenhill told members of the city council's overview scrutiny committee:

It's a big issue and the majority of this is claimant error. Some of it is local authority error. It's a very difficult one. It is the most difficult one to collect because – when we are aware of an overpayment – the benefits recipients are on low income. We can't go in and say to them, 'We have given you £300 you shouldn't have had so we are not going to pay your housing benefits for the next three weeks'. We can't do that.

Ms Greenhill said most of the overpayments were down to residents not telling the council of changes to their circumstances that affect their entitlement to housing benefits. Not fraud, then.

She said the key was to make it easier for claimants to inform the council of matters that alter their entitlement.

She said it was unlikely the total £9.5 million outstanding would ever be fully repaid, but added:

Don't assume £9.5 million is something we are doing nothing about. What we have got in place for a lot of that are attachments to benefits or attachments to earnings, so where people have previously received benefits they were not entitled to they repay at relatively small amounts each week.

Ms Greenhill told the Mercury the written off £2.8 million was a small proportion of the £135 million the council pays out to housing benefits claimants each year. She also stressed it was a sum "not untypical for similar-sized councils in large cities across the country". She is saying most councils have this sludge of old, uncollectable debt?

Housing benefit is largely Government money administered by the council. No. The government doesn't have any money. It was taxpayers' money, yours and mine.

Councillor Baljit Singh, chairman of the council's scrutiny finance task group, said:

The issue of concern is overpaid housing benefits. It appears, in 2014 we have overpaid to the tune of £2.98 million. That is a significant, although it is perhaps two per cent of the collection of debt. When you come to write off debt, it's this area that impacts the most. It is a very difficult one.

"Two per cent of the collection of debt"? What's been happening at Leicester, then? What has the council's scrutiny finance task group been up to all this time?

A Redditch man who fiddled more than £68,000 in benefits has been given a suspended jail sentence and will only be allowed out in daytime for emergencies and pre-arranged medical appointments for a year. (h/t A Reader)

Ricky Parker-Smythe, aged 69, has also been ordered to stay indoors on a 8am to midnight curfew seven days a week for 12 months after he admitted benefit fraud.

He said he was single and living with his sister Hazel in Bridley Moor Road, Redditch, when he claimed income support and then pension credit, Worcester Crown Court heard.

But Hazel Parker-Smythe was really his lawful wife and she was working the whole time he was claiming, David Iles, prosecuting, told the court.

Parker-Smythe, who suffers from a number of medical problems including rheumatoid arthritis and appeared in court on a mobility scooter, stopped work in 1988. In 1996, his incapacity benefit stopped and he claimed income support instead, which later changed to pension credit. He was not entitled to either of these and he falsely claimed £33,642 in income support and £33,690 in pension credit over 14 years until 2010.

He admitted the charge and also pleaded guilty to claiming £3,500 in housing and council tax benefit which he was not entitled to because he had too much capital. A proceeds of crime timetable has been set.

Jonathan Challinor, defending, said Parker-Smythe had claimed legitimately for the first eight years after he stopped work and it was not a "professional" attempt to defraud the benefits system. He thought he was entitled to the benefits.

Judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins, QC, said it was a serious case because it ran for so long and was fraudulent from the outset.

He said Parker-Smythe had a number of significant medical issues which would make it difficult for him in prison and also for the authorities. He was given a two-year sentence suspended for two years and a twelve month curfew from 8am to midnight and is only allowed to leave the house during the day for emergencies and pre-arranged medical appointments.

Source

A reader adds: Good punishment. Effectively under house arrest for a year. Saves taxpayers money.

A callous fraudster who “wickedly” conned an elderly woman out of her life savings and swindled the tax payer out of £120,000 in false benefit claims has been jailed. (h/t Dave)

David Williams, from Prenton, Wirral, claimed he was unable to work due to being severely disabled – while at the same time setting up his own business installing satellite dishes and aerials on people’s roofs.

In a shocking web of lies spun over a period of eight years, the 34-year-old father-of-five even told authorities two of his daughters were disabled and in receipt of Disability Living Allowance – when neither were – to get his hands on more state funds.

He also charged an 88-year-old customer an “exorbitant” £7,500 for a new fusebox he said she needed at her home – but instead used the cash to buy a new van for his aerial installation business.

She was left unable to trust strangers and spent the last year of her life scared to answer the door.

Having pleaded guilty to a string of fraud charges brought by the DWP and Wirral Trading Standards at an earlier hearing, Williams arrived at Liverpool crown court for sentencing on a mobility scooter.

The court was told he had fraudulently claimed a total of £40,000 in incapacity benefit, £70,000 in working and child tax credits and £10,000 in Disability Living Allowance between 2005 and 2013.

Prosecuting, Kevin Slack said Williams began claiming incapacity benefit legitimately in 2002, but that by 2005 it had become fraudulent.

On a claim form that year, he said he was unable to work, climb stairs or even pick his child up – and later claimed to need help from his wife with eating, using the toilet and even holding a phone.

But, in early 2005, Williams set up a carpet cleaning business, informing HMRC so that he could claim tax credits despite receiving incapacity benefits on the grounds he was unfit to work. Williams then told them his partner also worked for the firm 16 hours a week – when she wasn’t working at all – to get his hands on an enhanced level of tax credits following the birth of their first child.

The lies continued to stack up as he began submitting false childcare claims, racking up hundreds of pounds a week for made-up nursery costs.

Despite claiming Disability Living Allowance on the grounds he had to use crutches and a wheelchair, Williams set up a new business, Go Digital Aerials, in 2010 from his former address on Gresford Avenue, West Kirby.

It was through this business he met 88-year-old Mair Jones in 2011, who employed him for several jobs on the back of a leaflet posted through her door. But after winning her trust, the fraudster later conned her out of £7,500 for a fusebox that was never fitted, and fobbed her off when she asked for a refund. When her concerned neighbour tried to speak to him after Ms Jones became suspicious, he threatened to have her arrested for trespassing.

In a victim impact statement before her death last year, Ms Jones said she found it “galling and sickening” that he was driving round in a van she had paid for, and felt the stress and upset had exacerbated her health problems.

Williams’ defence solicitor Michael Davies accepted his client would face a custodial sentence but said Williams’ size and weight would make prison life difficult for him and for staff in getting him around.

Sentencing, judge Dennis Watson, QC, said that other than diabetes there was no objective clinical evidence Williams has any other significant medical issues.

He told him he had performed a “wicked con trick” on a vulnerable woman who trusted him, and described his lies about having disabled children as “callous and cynical”.

Williams was jailed for a total of three years and three months - 27 months for defrauding Ms Jones and 12 for the benefit frauds.

Source, with picture and slow-loading videos

A benefit cheat who fraudulently claimed more than £40,000 and failed to attend court on ten occasions has received a suspended jail term. (h/t Dave)

Julie Watkins, from Rugby, was finally arrested under warrant on November 26 and taken to Leamington Magistrates Court, where she pleaded guilty to making a false statement in order to claim benefits.

Miss Watkins fraudulently claimed a total of £40,849 between April 2009 and March 2013 - £26,989 in housing benefit, £13,090 in income support and £768 in council tax benefit.

The 39-year-old applied for the benefits on the basis she had separated from her partner and was a single parent.

But Rugby Borough Council and the DWP launched a joint investigation into her benefit claims after receiving a tip-off she was living with her partner.

When questioned, Watkins said her partner visited her home daily to see the children, but insisted he never stayed overnight.

She claimed she was unaware her partner's wages were paid into her bank account, and denied he supported her financially. (!!)

However, when her partner was questioned he admitted he had been in a continuous relationship with Watkins since 2009 and shared the same address. He said he was unaware Watkins had been claiming benefits, and only became aware when she asked him to leave the family home in April 2013 after admitting to him an investigation had been launched into her benefit claims.

Magistrates sentenced Watkins to 24 weeks in prison, suspended for 24 months. She was also given a 24 month supervision order with a requirement to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work, and was ordered to pay an £80 victim surcharge.

Watkins must repay the fraudulently claimed income support to the DWP, and the fraudulently claimed housing and council tax benefits to Rugby Borough Council.

Source

She doesn't seem to have been punished for ignoring the court ten times.

Following recent tax changes, a mother of one with a part-time job bringing in £5,000 a year would be £7,295 a year worse off if the child’s father lived with them, an increase of £70 in the notional penalty, according to the Marriage Foundation think-tank.

This is the problem with trying to help single people more than couples ... it creates an incentive for people not to live together ... or to say that they don't.

In reality, suggests the Foundation, around a quarter of a million couples simply pretend to live apart to avoid losing thousands of pounds in state support.

That's a lot of fraud - caused by the government's perverse incentives.

You can understand the state's wish to help the disadvantaged. But that creates an incentive for people to claim that they're disadvantaged in order to claim more money.

Maybe the margin of benefits between single people and couples has to be reduced.

Source

Only in Wales...?

A Llanelli teacher who helped her son fiddle £11,000 in benefits by pretending he was job hunting in Britain — while he was on an exotic 18-month tour of the Far East — will be allowed to continue teaching. (h/t Dave)

Sybil Lloyd filled in a benefits form — and sent them abroad for son Tom Clancey, aged 36, to sign on his extended holiday around the hotspots of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

She was convicted in Swansea Magistrates' Court in 2009, but the case was only heard by the General Teaching Council for Wales in Cardiff this week.

At the disciplinary hearing, the panel was told Ms Lloyd, who taught in a Gorseinon Primary School at the time, transferred the benefits cash abroad so her son could carry on holidaying at British taxpayers' expenses.

Clancey was paid £11,268 in housing benefit, council tax, disability allowance and income support during his 18-month Far East trip which took in taking tropical beaches and exotic rainforests.

He even got married while he was abroad.

Mother-of-three Lloyd, who at the time lived in Pentre Nicklaus Village in Llanelli, was convicted of three offences after pleading guilty to allowing or causing her son to fail to give prompt notification of a chance in circumstances and told to pay £840 in fines and court costs.

She received an official reprimand from the General Teaching Council for Wales on Monday but was not struck off after admitting her three convictions had an impact on her fitness to teach.

Presenting officer Huw Roberts said: "Teachers are role models to pupils and the public needs to have confidence in the teaching profession."

Ms Lloyd has repaid all the money in full.

She did not attend the hearing but in a written statement, Lloyd said: "I lost my good name and suffered extreme humiliation. I do my best for the children I teach."

The hearing in Cardiff was told she repaid "every penny that was over- claimed".

Lloyd had been teaching for 23 years. Hearing chair woman Sheila Drayton said: "Teachers are expected to adhere to the law. Ms Lloyd did not adhere to lawful standards of behaviour and did not conduct herself in a manner so as to uphold public trust and confidence in the teaching profession.

"She has expressed genuine regret and remorse and repaid the money in full.

"The offences took place outside school and there is no evidence that her behaviour has adversely affected pupils."

So it's fine for a burglar to teach your children, as long as it wasn't the school premises they burgled.

Clancey, of Loughor, Swansea, admitted failing to inform the authorities of a change in circumstance while he was out of the country. He was given a 12-month community order after he returned to Britain.

Source

A benefits cheat who dishonestly siphoned off almost £12,000 from the public purse has been handed a suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay the money back. (h/t Dave)

Tracy Miller, of Pilsley, near Chatsworth, was overpaid £11,819 between May 2011 and October 14 2013 by Derbyshire Dales District Council after she dishonestly claimed housing and council tax benefit.

The 43–year–old pleaded guilty at Chesterfield magistrates’ court to eight charges of making false representations in two separate benefit claim forms and dishonestly failing to declare changes to her circumstances.

She declared in an initial claim form for housing and council tax benefit submitted in May 2011 that she was single with one dependent child and did not own or jointly own any property.

Miller submitted a change of address form in January 2012 and again declared she was single.

Following an anonymous tip–off that she was married, the district council carried out surveillance and discovered she had lived with a partner since the start of the claim and had married in September 2012.

In addition, Miller jointly owned a property with an ex–husband and had received almost £26,000 from the sale proceeds.

The authority also found that her latest job generated a significantly higher income than the one she had declared to them.

Miller was given a 16–week jail sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to undertake 100 hours of unpaid community work. She was also ordered to repay the benefits money and £765 court costs. She is now paying the cash back to the authority at a rate of £75 a month.

Commenting after the sentencing, a Derbyshire Dales District Council spokesman said: “The district council adopts a zero tolerance policy to benefit fraud because it is not a victimless crime – benefit thieves take money intended for the most vulnerable in our society.

“We rely on anonymous referrals from the general public to enable our staff to successfully investigate and bring those guilty of offences to justice.”

Source

A mother has been spared jail after she cheated the taxpayer out of more than £30,000 by lying about her income and personal circumstances.

Beautician Rebecca Eddishaw was given a chance after a court heard the likely effect of prison would be considerable on her five-year-old daughter.

Thirty-year-old Eddishaw, of Spring Court, Farnsfield, failed to tell HMRC that she had income from renting out two properties in Arnold when claiming tax credits.

Between 2009 and 2013, she collected a higher rate of tax credit and was overpaid by almost £16,941. In addition, she failed to declare any earnings from her properties, meaning she avoided paying more than £13,797 in tax.

Eddishaw was handed an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, at Nottingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to three charges at an earlier hearing. She was also ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

A proceeds of crime investigation will be mentioned at court on June 23 next year.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Stokes QC told Eddishaw, who was of positive previous good character, that it was sustained fraud over five years.

"The sole reason I am suspending this sentence is because you are the single carer of your five-year-old daughter."

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A benefits cheat smuggled the stolen cash to his family overseas to help pay off ‘gambling debts’. (h/t A Reader)

Jhan Zaib fleeced £17,351 from the system by claiming he was an unemployed single dad on the breadline. In reality, the father-of-three was married and had a regular job at an Oldham tyre firm.

Investigators from the DWP learned that Zaib was sending the money abroad using electronic money transfer services. He claimed following his arrest that the money was used to pay his brother’s gambling debts after his parents came under pressure from gangsters in Pakistan.

Zaib, who owns his own home at Stafford Street, Oldham, was spared jail after a Manchester Crown Court judge said locking him away for a short period of time would not benefit the public.

The 37-year-old, who has no previous convictions, has so far paid back £1,600 of the money he took and would have been entitled to some benefits legitimately if he had come clean.

He "owns his own house", remember.

The court also heard Zaib’s claims for council tax, housing benefit and income support were genuine at the beginning.

When Zaib first started claiming in 2008, his marriage had broken down, he was out of work and looking after his daughter.

But he failed to tell the authorities when he remarried months later and got a job, going on to have two more children.

Our reader comments: "It's easy to forget a new wife, new job and new kids".

When his accounts were investigated by the DWP last year, they found he was getting wages from Hollinwood Tyre and Exhaust Centre and that he had been cheating the system for four and a half years.

He went on to admit failing to disclose a change in circumstances.

Had Zaib not pleaded guilty, he could have been given six months in jail. But with the significant discount for his guilty plea, the judge concluded it wasn’t worth locking him away. Ordering him to serve a four-month sentence, suspended for a year, with 200 hours of unpaid work.

Judge Martin Rudland said: “It doesn’t seem to me, having regard to your age, circumstances and previous good character, that the public interest is served by you immediately losing your liberty.”

Grainy picture

Only last month we wrote that news of keys amnesties had filtered through to Cornwall. Now someone there has admitted illegal sub-letting. In the tradition of Cornwall, though, she was given a conditional discharge.

In a first for Cornwall, a woman has been convicted of tenancy fraud for illegally moving out of and then subletting a council house.

Wendy Snowdon (42) formerly of Kinsman Estate, Bodmin pleaded guilty to one count of tenancy fraud.

In a prosecution led by Cornwall Council on behalf of Cornwall Housing Ltd, Miss Snowden admitted that she moved out of the property and sublet it without the landlord’s (Cornwall Housing Limited) consent in breach of an express term of the tenancy, knowing that such conduct amounted to a breach of a term of the tenancy.

The action was taken under new 'Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act legislation'.

Miss Snowdon was given 12 month conditional discharge and was ordered to pay Cornwall Council’s full investigation and legal costs of £1,322.90 and a £15 victim surcharge.

Cornwall Council’s corporate fraud team and Cornwall Housing Ltd have been working in partnership since August 2014 to tackle tenancy fraud and have recently announced that there will be key amnesty in January and February 2015 to give those who are abusing the system the opportunity to come clean and avoid possible prosecution.

Joyce Duffin, Cornwall Council cabinet member for housing and environment, said: “It costs on average £18,000 a year to house a family in temporary accommodation. There is huge pressure on the supply of social housing making it imperative that the housing we do have available goes to people in genuine need of help. It’s totally wrong for people not to be living in housing intended for them and to be potentially illegally profiting from it at the same time.”

Jane Barlow, Managing Director of Cornwall Housing said: “Cornwall Housing has been working in partnership with Cornwall Council’s experienced Corporate Fraud Team and three homes have already been identified that we believe have been illegally sub-let.

"This prosecution shows that this type of activity will not be tolerated by Cornwall Housing Ltd.

"We have announced that we will be running a key amnesty in January and February 2015 as we have seen evidence of how introducing a key amnesty has worked well in other parts of the country. By bringing the issue to the public’s attention, other authorities saw an increase in referrals to its tenancy fraud hotline and we hope to see the same results here as we know that the overwhelming majority of residents live in their homes legally and that they share our commitment to tackling tenancy fraud.

"I would also encourage anyone who suspects someone of committing tenancy fraud to get in touch.”

Source

Convicted benefits cheats illegally claimed more than £300,000 in Wolverhampton in the past year. (h/t Dave)

Wolverhampton City Council made a total of 77 benefit fraud sanctions between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014, resulting in a total of 53 prosecutions.

The most common sentence was unpaid work in the community, totalling 1,350 hours. There were also seven curfew orders, which restrict people to their home during the evening and night time. One person was sentenced to prison for 18 months and a further 11 people with prison sentences of three weeks to 12 months suspended for between 12 and 24 months.

Councillor Andrew Johnson, the authority's finance boss, said: "Appropriate action is taken to recover these overpayments wherever possible. A significant proportion of the 77 sanctions last year resulted in a prosecution. This was mainly due to the high value of the overpayments. Large overpayments also usually reflect longer periods of fraud, which can demonstrate a determined failure to apply for benefit truthfully, or to report changes in circumstances promptly."

There are three sanction types considered for benefit fraud offences in addition to the action taken to recover any overpaid benefit.

Cautions by the council are offered to people as an alternative to prosecution. If a caution is refused, prosecution is then considered. This sanction is typically given for smaller offences committed by first-time offenders who have cooperated in the investigation.

Administrative penalties are also offered. Cheats are asked to pay a fine of 30% or 50% of the overpayment on top of the recovery and they have 14 or 28 days to consider the offer before prosecution is sought.

Note - prosecutions can often produce lower penalties than this.

A criminal prosecution is the strongest sanction. This sanction typically applies to larger offences or a very small number committed by repeat offenders. This deterrent includes a criminal record for those found guilty.

On a national level, it is estimated that £2 billion is lost every year through benefit fraud. This equates to £70 a year for every taxpayer.

Joint investigations are carried out with the DWP and neighbouring councils and can often involve the police, immigration service, customs and excise and the Inland Revenue.

There are also Data Matching Exercises, which are conducted by the Housing Benefit Matching Service (HBMS) and the Audit Commission’s National Fraud Initiative (NFI), who cross-reference information held by public authorities and a number of private companies. Any conflicting data is then referred to the relevant authority to investigate.

Source

A series of investigations into housing fraud have culminated in a number of properties being recovered by Redbridge council.

The crackdown has saved it £702,000 in the last 12 months, according to the authority.

To date, fraud estimated to cost in excess of £1.3m has been prevented and 850 housing cases have been referred for review.

The council has recovered thirty nine properties, with Roding ward seeing the highest number of tenancy agreements being breached, after they were found to be illegally sub-let.

Seven homes under the Right to Buy scheme have been taken off the market after it was found the tenants were not living there and were sub-letting them.

The investigations have also led to the discovery of almost £90,000 in benefit fraud and council tax evasion.

Source

Is the scale of this a London problem?

Social housing fraud is the most wicked form of welfare fraud. The sums that can be saved are huge, but it's so much more than the money - needy families are being deprived of the chance to have a settled home that suits their needs.

A Kensington doctor, who pleaded guilty to charges under the Fraud Act 2006 after he sublet his council home for profit, has been given a community order of 135 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay full costs of £7,613.75 at £650 a month at Isleworth Crown Court.

At an earlier hearing on 11 November, at the same court, Dr Babiker Babiker, 40, formerly of Bramley House, Kensington, W10, admitted to making a monetary gain by subletting the property.

Dr Babiker had applied to buy his council flat under the Right to Buy scheme which would have given him up to a £75,000 discount off its market value. However, during the valuation process concerns were raised that Dr Babiker and his family were not using the property as their main and principal home. These concerns were relayed to the Council’s Fraud Investigation Team which then carried out a thorough investigation which established that Dr Babiker had in fact sublet the flat to another family while he and his family were living in North Wales.

At the original hearing His Honour Judge Dugdale commented that council homes were a limited resource let at a reduced rate.

During the sentencing hearing on 15 December Dr Babiker said he was trying to help the sub-tenant, who needed somewhere to live. Judge Reid, sentencing, said that Babiker had shown no remorse and described his actions as a “piece of thoroughly dishonest behaviour.”

Speaking after sentence was passed Councillor Rock Feilding-Mellen, Deputy Leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Cabinet Member for Housing, said:

The pressure on social housing in London is acute. It is totally wrong therefore that a Council tenant, who receives such a scarce resource, should then seek to profit by renting it to another family while living elsewhere. I am very pleased that the court has taken such a dim view of Dr Babiker’s actions. I want to thank the Council officers who, when alerted to possible wrong doing, investigated this case. We will always be vigilant to possible housing fraud and take all steps to ensure it is punished.

The Tenant Management Organisation for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has now repossessed the property.

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This cheat didn't prosper