Benefit fraud

Scheming white collar workers helped send the UK’s benefit fraud bill up by £500 million last year.

Thousands of middle class Brits are feared to be using their respectable images to file bogus disability claims.

The Sun on Sunday obtained details of five professionals who stole more than £250,000 in total.

They include London beautician Carina Reid, 32, who was jailed for three years for pocketing £50,000 in benefits while travelling the world.

Dr Sandra Turnbull, 45, of Newcastle, took £22,000 in disability benefits due to “problems walking” — while posting snaps of her hiking and scuba diving on Facebook. She had to pay back the cash and got a community sentence.

And teacher Kelly Upton, of Burton, Staffs, was told to return the £15,000 she stole for a bad back.

They listed three and then got bored and stopped.

Welfare Minister Lord Freud warned: “The convictions highlight that there is nowhere to hide. Our investigators will catch ALL those who cheat the taxpayer. The convictions of these white-collar criminals who have abused the system highlight that there is nowhere to hide. It’s only a small minority of people, but we are clear that stealing from taxpayers is a serious crime which diverts funds from those in need and it will not be tolerated.”

This is bluster and Lord Freud knows it.

Benefit cheats are now costing the country £30 million a week in false claims, according to latest DWP figures.

Welfare fraud rose cost taxpayers £1.6 billion last year – up £500 million on 2014-15.

More of taxpayers’ money is now lost to fraud than the Foreign Office’s entire annual budget of £1.1billion.

Last year, 5,000 people from all walks of life were convicted of benefit fraud, with a further 6,000 given on-the-spot penalties.

A profoundly deaf couple who made almost £2million from a disability allowance scam and spent the cash on a lavish lifestyle have been ordered to repay £700,000.

Shahab, 53, and Shehnaz Reza, 55, used cash intended for society’s most vulnerable to pay for holidays across the globe and jewellery.

Mr Reza persuaded his wife, along with his son Dr Abbas Reza, 27, to take part in his scheme by submitting fake invoices for sign language interpreters. Cash was splurged on a luxury home, a £600,000 penthouse, gold jewellery, an £8,000 ‘flawless’ diamond, a holiday to Dubai and a ‘student jolly’ to America.

The husband and wife have now been ordered by a judge at Southwark Crown Court to repay £702,402.70 of their profits or face extra time in jail.

Shabab, jailed for nine years in February last year after he admitted conspiracy to defraud, benefited to the tune of £1,017,811.31. Shehnaz, who sat in the public gallery after serving her 22 month jail sentence, profited by £909,389.28, the court heard.

The couple were ordered to repay a sizeable chunk of the profits after questions were raised about possible offshore assets.

Cash from the scam, which ran between 2009 and 2011, was spent on property, jewellery, holidays and investments.

Shahab and Shehnaz also lied about the family’s financial circumstances to Harrow Council, netting nearly £100,000 in benefits and tax exemptions between June 2002 and August 2010.

Shehnaz was previously described as having the reading level of an eight-year-old and may have been coerced into committing the fraud by Shahab, who had a previous conviction for assaulting his wife.

Jailing Shehnaz for 22 months, Judge John Price had said: ‘Mrs Reza is profoundly deaf, has been all her life and she was under the influence of her husband. He provided a substantial lifestyle for the family, they lived well and she took part in that, and by her plea she admits being part of that.’

Abbas Reza – who is not deaf – had really struggled for cash during his studies to become a doctor. He was previously handed a six month sentence suspended for 18 months after the judge agreed he had been ‘under the influence’ of his father.

The cash was laundered through accounts in Canada, the United Arab Emirates and the UK and then spent on luxuries.

Shehnaz regularly claimed business expenses despite not appearing to do any work and Abbas was claiming for his mobile phone insurance.

Shahab orchestrated the four-year con by submitting fake invoices for sign language interpreters to the Department of Work and Pensions through the Access to Work scheme. The accountant set up six sham companies to claim thousands a month in bogus fees on the basis of the fraudulent claim forms.

But he had to widen the pool of people the cash was being paid to so Shahab used his connection with his mosque and the training college UCanDoIt to recruit further fraud members.

He recruited the family’s cleaner Daiva Alisaskaite, 44, and a second woman, Natela Babina, 32, to submit false invoices as ’employees’ of the company.

Neither of them ever required an interpreter or support worker yet they submitted false claims worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Alisauskaite made £8,000 while Babina pocketed £9,500, after they collectively submitted 48 false claims over 23 months.

They were both handed 12-month prison sentences, suspended for 18 months, after being found guilty of fraud by false representation.

Following a trial Shehnaz Reza was found guilty of fraud by false representation, obtaining money transfer by deception, and dishonestly obtaining exemption from paying council tax. Their son Abbas denied and was convicted of one count of fraud by false representation.

Shehnaz and Abbas had admitted one charge of conspiracy to defraud to avoid a retrial. Abbas further pleaded guilty to a charge of transferring criminal property relating to £50,000 he transferred from his HSBC account to his dad.

Jurors were also unable to reach verdicts on daughter Zainab Reza, 24, who faced charges of conspiracy to defraud and failing to disclose their her financial position to the Student Loans Company. The charges against her were ordered to lie on file.

Shahab Reza was ordered to repay £598,682.01 of his £1,017,811.31 profit within six months or face an extra four years in jail.

Shehnaz Reza must pay back £103,719.69 of her £909,389.28 benefit in the same time period or face an extra two years and three months behind bars.

Source

A Thornaby woman failed to disclose an inheritance of more than £40,000 while still claiming benefits, a court heard.

Single mum Caroline Painter, previously of Thirsk, pleaded guilty at Northallerton Magistrates Court to four offences, including failing to inform Hambleton District Council that she had received an inheritance of £40,406 while claiming housing benefit and council tax reduction.

The 42-year-old also admitted giving false information on forms relating to the claims.

Painter was given a 12 month community order, during which time she will have to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work. She was also ordered to pay £250 as a contribution to the council’s legal costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

She is also responsible for repaying the overpaid housing benefit of £3646.26, and repaying the £440.88 reduction she was granted through the council tax reduction scheme.

A Hambleton Council spokesperson said the case was part of the authority’s “ongoing campaign to stamp out benefit fraud.”

Source

A benefits cheat from Oldbury has been jailed for 15 months after fiddling more than £30,000.

Mark Cornfield, aged 60, claimed housing and council tax benefits, stating he was jobless and without assets.

But all the time he was picking up money from two private pensions and during the five year period of his fraud received £19,300 from them.

Judge Amjad Nawaz told Cornfield, who had a previous conviction for fraud, the benefits system had to rely on the honesty of the claimants.

He said Cornfield had taken advantage of the system from the outset and his fraud was "deliberate" because he told the authorities he was receiving no pension payments.

Cornfield admitted four charges of benefit fraud and the judge ruled his offending was so serious only an immediate jail term was appropriate.

Michael Grey, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court that Cornfield made his false claims between May 2009 and September 2014 and was paid a total of £30,446. But during that period he picked up £16,800 from one of his private pensions and a further £2,500 from the second.

Henry Skudra, defending, said Cornfield had repaid £4,400 back the Department of Work and Pensions and he was "doing his best" to keep making payments. He said Cornfield was full of remorse and had "simply not put his mind" to the issue when he made his claims.

But the judge said it must have been obvious to Cornfield that he was acting dishonesty because when he filled in his claim forms he made it clear he was not receiving any pension payments.

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A student from Brent who illegally sublet her council house for four years has been sentenced to 130 hours of community service after an investigation by Brent Council's fraud team.

Kusheema Nurse, 26, did not tell Brent Housing Partnership (BHP), which manages council houses on Brent Council's behalf, that she had moved out of her council flat on Mordaunt Road after gaining a place at university in Bristol to study Law.

Nurse had been given the one-bedroom flat by the council in August 2010 – two months after secretly starting a part-time job 120 miles away in Bristol.

In June 2014, Nurse’s sub-tenant approached BHP to complain about being evicted without notice and told them that he had been renting the property since April 2011. Although Nurse had not given him a tenancy agreement or receipts for his rent payments, he had redecorated the entire flat at his own expense.

An investigation by the council’s fraud team followed, revealing that Nurse had started her Law degree at the University of the West of England in Bristol in September 2011.

It also showed that she had been employed in part-time jobs in Bristol between 2010 and 2013 and that a young woman was rescued from the flat by the fire brigade in February 2014 after a small fire broke out. The woman, a friend of the subtenant, did not know Nurse, who also failed to report the fire to BHP.

When interviewed under caution and asked for an explanation, Nurse chose not to comment.

She was prosecuted at Harrow Crown Court for offences under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013 and the Fraud Act 2006, with Nurse claiming in court that she travelled to Bristol on a daily basis and continued to live full time at her Mordaunt Road flat. The jury did not believe her and found her guilty, with the judge sentencing her to 130 hours of community service, adjourned for three months to allow her to take her final university exams.

BHP is now in the process of repossessing the property from Nurse.

Cllr Harbi Farah, Brent Council’s lead member for housing, said: "Sub-letting social housing isn’t just selfish – it’s illegal. It clogs up desperately needed accommodation while lining the pockets of people who falsely claim to be in need. Brent Council and BHP will be relentless in our pursuit of fraudsters like Ms Nurse, ensuring that council homes go to those who have the right to live in one."

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A woman who fabricated illnesses in her two children so that she could claim £375,000 in benefits has been jailed for seven and a half years.

The 48-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, forced her children to have surgery they did not need as part of a 10-year fraud. She tricked doctors into fitting gastronomy tubes to their stomachs even though both children were able to eat normally.

She was sentenced following a conviction last month at Croydon crown court for child cruelty and fraud offences.

DS Stuart Parsons said after her sentencing on Monday: “It is staggering to think that the mother’s wilful actions resulted in the children undergoing unnecessary surgical and medical interventions. She lied at every opportunity, presenting herself as a lone parent coping with ill and vulnerable children. The reality was that she resided with her partner and fabricated her children’s conditions for personal financial gain".

Over at least 10 years, the mother presented her son and daughter to doctors and education professionals, maintaining that they suffered from serious health conditions.

Between October 2003 and February 2014 she falsely claimed £375,198 in disability living allowances and income support. This was despite living with her partner, who earned £38,000 a year.

She forced her children to fake symptoms of illnesses, ranging from asthma to autism and urology problems, to secure her benefits.

Steroids were given to her son even though he did not have severe asthma, as she claimed. She also had her son mimic behaviour consistent with autism and, as part of the fraud, resisted attempts by the child’s nursery to toilet-train him.

The trial was the culmination of a three-year investigation. Police raided the woman’s home and arrested her in May 2013 after suspicions of fraud were raised. During the search they found a large quantity of items with an estimated cost to the NHS of £145,870, including asthma drugs and feeding equipment.

The woman was found guilty of four counts of cruelty to a person under 16, two counts of obtaining money transfer by deception, seven counts of making a false representation, and two counts of fraud by false representation.

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A widow who fraudulently claimed more than £64,000 of state benefits after she remarried claimed she was in an 'open relationship'. (h/t Dave)

Shannon Ford, 44, continued to claim Widowed Parents' Allowance after she married Brian Armstrong in 2005.

But when it emerged she had been cheating the system, Ford, a member of the travelling community, said she had not wanted to declare her marriage as she would be shunned by her community, in which widows are not expected to remarry. She also insisted the marriage was an open relationship and that both had been involved with other people, in what was described to the court as an ‘on and off’ relationship.

Between 2005 and 2014, Ford claimed £30,820.89 of Widow’s Allowance and £34,820.79 of Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit from Lancaster City Council and Craven District Council.

Throughout that period, she changed address a number of times and updated her details with the authorities, but failed to mention she was now married. As a married mother she would no longer be entitled to the benefits she was claiming.

Ford, of Moor View in Lower Bentham, pleaded guilty to seven counts of benefit fraud. Her defence lawyer, Nicola Hall, said she had notified the authorities of her change in circumstances as she had limited literacy, and relied on family members to help with filling out forms. But Judge Simon Newell, sentencing, pointed out that she had given her occupation as a secretary when she registered her marriage.

Cecilia Pritchard, prosecuting, said: “Some of the claims were fraudulent from the outset. There have been false declarations when she was capable of doing so. She had advised of a change of address on a number of occasions.”

The court heard Ford has four children and is the primary carer for her youngest child, who is disabled.

Judge Newell accepted that during the period Ford was claiming benefits, there would have been times when she would have been eligible and times when the claim was fraudulent, due to the instability in the marriage.

He handed her a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years.

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A man who featured in the Ilford Recorder three years ago for waiting 11 years for a council flat has been found guilty for illegally subletting it.

Richard Kagumya, 33, from Woodford Green, was found guilty on two counts of fraud and one count of subletting a social housing property at Barkingside Magistrates’ Court on August 5.

In May 2013 the Recorder ran a story about Mr Kagumya’s 11 year wait for a council home.

Genesis Housing subsequently let a one bed property in Heron Mews, Ilford, to Mr Kagumya in June 2013 for a social rent of £400 a month and he began subletting the flat for double that price in February the following year.

As a result, Mr Kagumya, who was also in receipt of housing benefit, made a profit of £7,000 from the rent and benefit payments before the fraud was detected in October 2014.

Genesis tenancy fraud officer Michael Evans said: “Prior to his conviction Mr Kagumya had genuinely been in need of affordable housing. He had previously approached Redbridge Council and even brought his case to the attention of local newspapers as he felt that the social housing scheme had failed him. Mr Kagumya failed to declare to us and Redbridge Council that his circumstances had changed. Instead he chose instead to illegally rent the property and live elsewhere. There is a desperate shortage of affordable housing in the UK and with so many people and families on the waiting list it really is not fair when someone abuses the system in this way.”

A Redbridge Council spokesman added: “This case is another example that shows if you commit fraud in Redbridge, you will be caught and punished. Fraud has a negative impact on all our residents, as it takes money away from vital frontline services provided to people who really need them."

After several years!

Mr Kagumya was given a community order of 100 hours of unpaid work in the next 12 months as well as being ordered to pay £1,979.38 and £5,057.44 to Redbridge Council and Genesis Housing respectively.

A benefits cheat who said she couldn't walk and fraudulently claimed almost £40,000 avoided jail after she was caught competing as a Miss Universe bodybuilder. (h/t Dave)

Maria Hughes, 45, dubbed herself "Miss Strict Muscle" on her website, but told the Department of Work and Pensions she could only walk three metres.

The scrounger had suffered from arthritis since childhood and her initial claim was genuine, but she failed to notify authorities that she could regularly bench press 70kg. When she served time for drug offences in 2010 she went to the gym five times a week and even asked for extra protein.

Hughes, also known as Maria Glazowska, of Meir, Stoke-on-Trent, appeared in a wheelchair at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on Friday (19/8).

She admitted three charges of benefits fraud between April 2009 and October 2014 totalling £39,743 and was jailed for eight months suspended for two years.

Sentencing, Judge David Fletcher told her: "You are someone who has had a chequered life. It has been beset by not only physical problems but also psychological ones. But you were overpaid almost £40,000 from the public purse. People who are ill or disabled but continue to work would be shocked and offended by your behaviour."

He added that she was a "complex individual", and he felt there was sufficient mitigation for him to take the unusual step of imposing a suspended sentence.

Prosecutor Guy Mathieson said: "She claimed she was only able to walk three metres, she would have to use a walking stick, and she required daily care with personal matters like getting in and out of bed, getting dressed and chores. But in 2009 observations made it perfectly clear that whatever had been the original basis of the claim, that position was no longer the case as Miss Hughes was much more physically able than she had maintained."

Hughes served a short prison sentence in 2010 for drug offences, during which she was a regular in the gym.

Mr Mathieson said: "By that time she had become extremely muscular and stated she had the ambition to take part in bodybuilding competitions. She was an orderly in the gym and worked there five days a week, and at no point suggested she had any disability. She worked out on a regular basis, bench pressing up to 70kg and running on the treadmill. She made an application for special treatment to be given extra protein - she stated she had been working very hard for six years to build up muscle to qualify to compete once she was released."

Following her release Hughes had her own website under the name Miss Strict Muscle and held private sessions that were "extremely physical in nature". Mr Mathieson said: "She described herself on the website as 'not just a superwoman, but a hard-core superwoman'."

Hughes appeared in videos and magazines while taking part in national bodybuilding competitions, and came sixth in the Miss Physique category of Miss Universe.

Following an investigation she was arrested and interviewed.

Mr Mathieson said she claimed she was still suffering from "a huge number of ailments" and the claims on her website were "self-aggrandisement".

Hughes admitted failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions of a change in her circumstances, which she knew would affect her entitlement to support relating to Disability Living Allowance, Employment Support Allowance and Income Support.

She has 16 previous convictions for dishonesty, drugs offences and loitering for the purposes of being a prostitute.

William Beardmore, defending, said Hughes suffered from body issues as a result of her upbringing. He said this led to her taking nutrition and exercise "to the extreme", and she had used drugs to promote her muscle growth. Mr Beardmore said: "She had been in a toxic relationship and in 2012 she was made bankrupt. There were a number of factors playing on her mind."

Source, with pictures if you want them

An ‘eccentric’ retired teacher has been branded a benefits cheat and ordered to pay £1,750 after renting out his one-bedroom council flat on Airbnb. (h/t Dave)

Anthony Whewell, 64, earned more than £9,000 by letting out the tiny apartment in Bury, Greater Manchester, as a ‘bed and breakfast’ for almost four years.

He advertised the ‘former local authority flat’ on the website, charging £30 per night, £200 per week or £700 per month. Whewell received numerous positive reviews for his ‘friendly B&B at my place in Bury’ with visitors praising his hospitality and one calling him ‘a wonderful host’.

He even stayed up until midnight to welcome another guest, but one customer complained that a hot tub Whewell claimed was included was ‘really just a bath’. He told council investigators that he withdrew the hot tub description as a result.

But Whewell has now pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful subletting of a secure tenancy and fraud by false representation - although he avoided jail.

He began living in the flat in 2011 and started subletting it as a B&B in July 2012. It is believed that his own rent, payable to Six Town Housing, was around £65 per week, meaning he made a decent profit.

Whewell used the money he made to pay for luxury goods including a £2,000 sound system and top up his private pension fund, Bury Magistrates Court heard, which the council said ‘grew by thousands of pounds’.

Bury Council, which took the case to court, said the flat was sublet by the ex-teacher for around 500 nights until he was caught out in March this year. On occasions, customers rented out the flat for blocks at a time or for just single nights. He made breakfast for the tenants unless they had rented the entire flat for their exclusive use. But if they rented just the room, Whewell would sleep on a sofa bed in the living room or stay with his elderly father, who he cares for full-time.

Bury Council said Whewell ‘fraudulently ran a bed and breakfast business’ from his council flat while also claiming pension credit and housing benefit'.

He pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful subletting of a secure tenancy and fraud by false representation.

He was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 100 hours of unpaid work and £750 court costs. He must pay back £1,000 to the council.

He also received an 18-month suspended possession order on condition of good behaviour. He risks being kicked out over future bad behaviour or any illegality.

Whewell - who describes himself as ‘jovial and bookish’ - was away on a walking holiday when a reporter called round. However, his wife, Martha, explained that he had made the legal error due to his naivety. She described him as a ‘lovely eccentric man’ and added that he had listed the flat for around nine months before anyone actually stayed there. She said the flat was no longer listed on Airbnb.

Bury's deputy council leader Jane Lewis said those who defraud the system will be prosecuted. She added: 'There are approximately 8,000 people on our housing waiting list and it is absolutely imperative that social housing properties go to the people who need them most.'

Source with pictures

It seems so long since we ridiculed Cornwall for catching up with the idea of a keys amnesty. Now news has reached Swansea!

An amnesty is to be offered to Swansea Council tenants illegally sub-letting properties, as a report reveals up to £4.5 million could be being lost to the authority in council tenancy fraud.

The authority's audit committee will review an annual study by the council corporate fraud team, in which the European Institute for Combating Corruption and Fraud estimates two per cent of housing stock outside London are at risk from potential tenancy fraud, which in Swansea equates to 270 properties.

And with the estimated cost of keeping a family in temporary accommodation for one year standing at £18,000, it equates to a potential loss of £4,860,000 to Swansea Council.

However, the figure is speculative and likely to be much lower, and Swansea Council says the number of empty properties within its housing stock continues to be at historic low levels, with more than 98 per cent of its 13,500 properties occupied.

The properties concerned won't be on their books as empty.

But it admits the possibility of 'a small minority' of tenants are illegally sub-letting their homes or leaving them unoccupied and living elsewhere.

To address the potential problem, Swansea Council is to offer an amnesty to any council tenant who may be engaging in the illegal activity.

The amnesty is being planned within the next few months which will provide an opportunity for any tenant who may be committing tenancy fraud, and who wishes to avoid prosecution, to hand back the keys to their property and walk away.

Andrea Lewis, Swansea Council's cabinet member for next generation services, said:

Tenancy fraud is unacceptable. Not only is it illegal, but it can deprive often vulnerable families of much-needed accommodation and generate anti-social behaviour that sometimes impacts on entire communities.

Although the problem here in Swansea is nowhere near as widespread as in other parts of the UK, we're determined to take action to cut down on waiting lists for council homes and help tackle the lack of affordable housing across the city.

Key amnesties have been successful in other local authority areas, with many properties having been recovered as a direct result. We'd urge anyone who is committing tenancy fraud in Swansea to surrender their tenancies now because that will avoid the council taking legal action.

People who are unlawfully sub-letting their council houses or leaving them unoccupied are also depriving other council tenants across Swansea because the money the council is losing as a direct result would be reinvested back into services for the benefit of residents.

Following the amnesty, any tenant caught committing tenancy fraud could face a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison, a fine of up to £50,000 and recovery not only of the property, but also the proceeds from renting the property together with all legal costs.

A council tenant who illegally sublet his flat while living elsewhere has been forced to hand in his keys.

The flat in Bemerton Heath was given back to the council after investigators found the tenant had not lived there for years. He had actually been living with his partner and had sublet his one-bed flat to his friend.

When shown evidence of his actions, the tenant surrendered his keys and terminated his tenancy.

It comes as part of a council crackdown on tenancy fraud. In the past nine months, council sleuths have focused on illegal subletting and abandonment.

Using the latest computer software and tip-offs from the public, 15 properties have been regained, six of which belong to Wiltshire Council.

Cases can be taken to criminal prosecution as offences have been committed under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013.

Anyone who is found guilty of illegally subletting parts or the whole of their home could be fined up to £50,000, receive a criminal record and could be sent to prison.

The main tool for the identification and detection of the tenancy fraud is through the use of sophisticated tenancy profiling software from Housing Partners called ‘Insight.’ The technology flags up where properties may be occupied by someone other than the tenant or the tenant may be living elsewhere. Using this intelligence, further investigations are carried out.

Dick Tonge, cabinet member for finance, said: “Although technology is an effective tool to help identify fraud, we still need people to let us know if they suspect fraud is happening – almost half of the fraud cases investigated have started with tip-offs from the public.”

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A former housing officer at Birmingham City Council has been sentenced to three years in prison for committing fraud against her employer.

An internal audit investigation by the council back in 2014 had found Ms Danyaal had submitted six fraudulent homeless applications using fabricated identities and personal information. She was later dismissed from her job role.

Zara Danyaal was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 30 months for one count of social housing fraud and six months for two offences relating to job references.

Cllr Peter Griffiths, the council’s cabinet member for housing and homes, said:

Danyaal committed an act of fraud and in so doing also prevented several families from being housed. Birmingham City Council has been proactive from the start in pursuing and bringing the perpetrators of this fraud to justice.

Furthermore, all the properties obtained by the deception have now been recovered so that they can be let to citizens who are in genuine need of social housing.

Her sister, Samara Malik, was also jailed for ten months relating to a offence of social housing fraud.

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A Devon woman caught waxing the legs of an undercover investigator while claiming disability benefit has been ordered to pay back more than £17,000. (h/t Dave)

Tracy Carter-Lunn, aged 55, must hand over the cash or face a year in jail.

She was handed a suspended prison sentence in May for pocketing payments while capable of work.

Plymouth Crown Court heard she also carried two cups of tea to customers at her family's salon despite having nerve damage in her right arm. A judge also told her that she was "walking around as happy as Larry" while claiming a separate back injury had left her unable to walk.

Carter-Lunn, co-owner of 50 Shades of Hair and Beauty Salon, in Efford, returned to court to face a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Jason Beal, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said she had made £17,071 through her offending. He added that she had assets of £49,100 to cover the sum. Michael Green, for Carter-Lunn, agreed the figures but asked for three months to pay. He said she and her husband needed time to either sell or remortgage a property.

Judge Ian Lawrie ordered that she pay the £17,701 and imposed a 12-month prison sentence in default.

Carter-Lunn admitted dishonestly failing to promptly notify a change of circumstances which she knew would affect her claim for Disability Living Allowance. But she disputed the extent of her offending and faced a fact-finding hearing in front of a judge.

Undercover investigator Jess Hefford told that hearing that Mrs Carter-Lunn used both hands to apply and remove the wax strips on her legs back in July 2014. She also told the court that Carter-Lunn carried the cups in saucers without spilling any at the salon.

Carter-Lunn at first claimed Disability Living Allowance back in 2001 because of nerve damage to her right arm sustained when she fell through a glass door at the age of seven. Prosecutors told the court that the claim may have been honest, but her condition improved, at least from 2004. She then started work as a healthcare assistant, performing duties such as opening and closing sample pots and sterile bags at Derriford Hospital.

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A benefits cheat pensioner has been ordered to pay back the proceeds of a 10-year fraud. (h/t&nbspDave)

Chung Fong, 75, previously avoided jail after pleading guilty to two counts of benefit fraud after wrongly claiming £64,451 in pension credit and £4,328 in council tax benefit between 2004 and 2014.

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Cardiff Crown Court saw him ordered to pay back a total of £73,581 within three months plus a further £1,150 towards prosecution costs within six months.

Prosecutors said that while Fong, from Newport, was claiming the benefits, his wife had more than £200,000 of savings in several bank accounts.

During the hearing before Judge Patrick Curran QC he was ordered to pay back a total of £73,581 under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 plus a further £1,150 towards prosecution costs.

The defendant was sentenced at Newport Crown Court in March where he was handed a 10-month jail term suspended for 18 months.

Prosecutor Ruth Smith told that hearing Fong completed a form in July 2004 that required him to declare any capital sums he and his wife may have.

She said he declared savings in his own accounts – amounts that would have meant he was still entitled to benefits – but failed to mention the money in his wife’s accounts.

Fong was arrested in 2014 and claimed in a police interview he did not know his wife’s financial affairs.

He was asked about a takeaway business he had previously owned but told police money from that sale had been gambled away.

He later admitted he was aware that his wife had savings that he did not declare in his benefit claim.

Defence barrister Gareth Williams said: “He knew that his wife had money but he tells me he wasn’t sure exactly how much. It seems that they have been living a separate type of marriage in terms of money because of Mr Fong’s gambling problem.”

Source

The half-sister of a baron who funded a lavish lifestyle from a complex mortgage and benefit fraud has been ordered to pay back more than £565,000.

Compulsive thief Dawn Simon, of Sheerstone, Iwade, stole jewellery worth up to £500,000 in a string of street pickpocketings.

The 54-year-old half-sister of Baron Ouseley, chairman of the football anti-racism Kick It Out campaign, was found to have benefited to the tune of £599,304.

Maidstone Crown Court heard her realisable assets totalled £565,478, which included her Iwade property and a £140,000 Bentley car, now said to be worth £51,000.

Simon, who has been released from a three-year jail sentence imposed in September 2013, was given three months to pay the amount or face a further three years and eight months in prison. If she does default, she will still have to pay the amount under the order made by Judge Charles Macdonald QC.

Simon came to the attention of police when her lover, Peter Harvey, then 50, went to Sittingbourne police station after a domestic dispute. He told officers Simon had acquired her home fraudulently by encouraging nephew Daniel Wade, 29, to pose as a mortgage applicant.

Under the scam in which Wade secured the £379,000 mortgage, they forged personal documents and payslips. The property was then occupied by Simon under a bogus tenancy agreement with Wade.

At the same time, she was fraudulently claiming benefits, including child tax support, while living a lavish lifestyle.

She enjoyed luxury jewellery, holidays to Dubai, Las Vegas and New York as well as numerous cars – including the Bentley.

An investigation also found Simon had been paying the mortgage payments for Wade on the property – despite not being in full-time employment.

Simon targeted victims at cash machines before making a note of their PINs and following them, then stealing their purses before draining their bank accounts. Police also found stolen mobile phones, digital camera memory cards, and jewellery.

Simon was arrested with Wade, of Holloway, north London, and Harvey, of Tottenham, north London, in March 2012. Wade was also jailed for three years, while Harvey was sentenced to a year.

A jury convicted the three of a string of theft and fraud offences.

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A Bermondsey property investor and caterer who stole £70,515 in a tax credit fraud has been jailed for twenty months.

Khalid Farid, 59, pleaded guilty to fraudulently claiming tax credits despite pocketing more than £509,000 from property sales.

Farid’s crime was uncovered by an HMRC property taskforce, set up to identify those who seek to avoid paying tax from property transactions. Taskforces bring together various HMRC compliance and enforcement teams for intensive bursts of activity targeting specific sectors and locations where strong evidence is held to indicate a high risk of tax evasion and fraud.

Investigators found Farid had eight London properties, purchased in his wife’s name, which he’d sold over the previous nine years.

Although making substantial profits, at the same time Farid was claiming tax credits for himself and his family. He lied and claimed the only home he had was his rented flat, which, until recently, he used as a base to cook and deliver Indian takeaways.

David Margree, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “Farid deliberately abused a system designed to provide financial help to the most vulnerable people in our society. Honest taxpayers and those in need of benefits often don’t have the opportunity to own one property, but Farid profited from the sale of eight. He knew what he was doing was wrong but had no intention of playing by the rules, thinking he could hide his crime by using his wife’s name as a smokescreen. But he was wrong and now is paying the price for his dishonesty with a jail sentence.”

In summing up the Recorder, Mr V Robinson QC, said: “In spite of Mr Farid’s early guilty plea, he had made a serious financial gain and sending him to prison may send a clear message to others considering benefit fraud in the future.”

The property sales will now be subject to a Capital Gains Assessment and confiscation proceedings to recover the proceeds of his crime will follow.

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A woman fraudulently claimed £47,500 in tax credits after failing to tell the authorities she was living with her police officer partner.

Mother-of-three Anna Glynn, 37, received the money between October 2010 and April 2015.

The carer, from Rhyl, Denbighshire, pleaded guilty to fraud at Mold Crown Court and was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years. She was also ordered to carry out 240 hours' unpaid work.

During the sentencing hearing the court heard Glynn's partner knew nothing about what was happening.

"It is a great pity that you did not share your circumstances with your partner, a police officer," Judge Geraint Walters said. "Had you done so, you may have received some guidance about the inappropriateness of what was going on."

Defence barrister Simon Killeen said the relationship was "on and off" for times during the period of offending.

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A married couple who sublet a four-bedroom house in North Wembley that they were renting to 20 people have been fined more than £10,000.

Daniel and Alima Borzos of Peel Road, duped the letting agency managing the property into signing them up as tenants after claiming they would live there with their small child.

Instead the couple squeezed 16 mattresses into the house and are believed to have had up to 20 people living there.

Brent enforcement officers made the discovery after they raided the property in April.

Willesden Magistrates Court found them guilty of failing to provide evidence of their tenancy and fined Mrs Borzos £7,000 and Mr Borzos £2,000, while each must pay costs of £497 and a victim surcharge of £170. They have now left the property.

Their prosecution brings to a total 35 rogue landlords who have been successfully convicted this year under a licensing scheme which aims to improve standards in the private rental sector in Brent.

Among them are Rehan Sheikh, who was given a four month prison sentence and fined a total of nearly £20,000 for illegally evicting the tenants of his unlicensed property in Wembley Park Drive, Wembley.

The following month Paul Fenton was fined almost £18,000 for refusing to renovate his unlicensed flat on Walm Lane, Cricklewood.

In August, Tilak Raj Sarna was fined almost £40,000 for squeezing 24 tenants into his house on Bowrons Avenue, Wembley, which had been licensed to accommodate seven people.

Cllr Harbi Farah, cabinet member for housing at Brent Council, said: “This case once again demonstrates the importance of Brent’s private sector licensing scheme. “While there are many good landlords in Brent who have licensed their properties, there’s still a minority who haven’t, who are operating illegally and exploiting people for profit. We will always push for the strongest penalties against unlicensed properties in Brent, so we’re pleased to see rogue landlords likes the Borzos’ receive a substantial punishment.”

Most private landlords in Brent are legally required to obtain a licence from the council.

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THE number of benefit cheats being jailed has hit a 10-year low despite fraud at a record high, official figures reveal.

Just 149 of 5,851 convicted fraudsters were sent to prison last year, even though the Government wants to clamp down on the spiralling welfare budget.

An estimated £1.6billion is swindled from the benefit budget, costing the taxpayer £30million a week, but fewer cheats have been jailed year on year since 2009.

The report by the Department for Work and Pensions revealed that benefit fraud is at “its highest recorded rate”. It also warned that more cheats could be escaping justice because some fraud methods are difficult to detect.

John O’Connell of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said:

It is important for DWP to crack down on benefit cheats when Government statistics show that the level of fraud remains stubbornly high.

Unfortunately the welfare system continues to be dogged by complexity. Until there are moves to simplify and remove the opportunity for fraud the authorities will continue to lose significant sums of taxpayers’ money.

The Government must now redouble their efforts because the welfare system must be there as a safety net for the neediest in society, not a comfort blanket for those more than capable of looking after themselves.

Record numbers of fraudsters were jailed in 2009, with 309 people receiving custodial sentences.

But since 2011 fewer criminals have been sent to jail: 291 people were imprisoned in 2011, 262 in 2012, 233 in 2013, 221 in 2014 and the 149 last year.

The past 10 years saw a sharp rise in the number of suspended sentences for benefit fraud but last year saw the third highest average fine in the past decade.

The Government paid out £148bn in benefits in 2009/10, £153bn in 2010/11, £158bn in 2011/12, £166bn in 2012/13, £164bn in 2013/14 and £168bn in 2014/15. It is forecast to spend £171bn in 2015/16.

In July, a mother of 12 was spared jail after fraudulently claiming more than £150,000. Melanie Edwards, 40, said she was bringing up her family alone, but was still with her husband Brian. Both worked at a local dessert factory while she claimed tax and housing benefits.

A DWP spokesman said sentences were “a matter for the independent courts”. He added:

Our focus is on preventing fraud in the first place, as well as investigating and stopping the small minority of people who do commit fraud.

Through our reforms, fraud and error in the benefits system is at a record low.

We have a range of penalties available to punish fraudsters and always take action to prosecute them when appropriate... convicted fraudsters will also have to face the consequences of having a conviction.

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Benefit thieves do it for the money. They should have to pay back twice what they stole. They should not be eligible for any benefits until they have, and they should have to do some unpaid work every week until the debt to society is cleared.

More benefit fraud bluster from Lord Freud

Deaf couple told to repay £700k from disability allowance scam

Benefit claimant didn't disclose £40k inheritance

Jail for deliberate benefit fraud

Not a great start to a career in law!

Woman fabricated children's illnesses to claim benefits

Has anything bad happened to this criminal gypsy?

Man sublet Ilford flat in social housing fraud

Bodybuilder was £39k benefit thief who claimed she couldn't walk

A bizarre case of sub-letting

Swansea proposes keys amnesty!

Illegal sub-letter goes unpunished

Former council worker jailed for social housing fraud

Woman must repay £17k benefits

Pensioner ordered to repay £73k

Benefit fraud was part of thief's repertoire

£70k tax credit fraudster jailed

No jail for £47k tax credit fraud

Couple fined for illegal sub-letting

149 benefit thieves were jailed last year