Benefit fraud

This is good news. Right to buy fraud is a wicked crime, taking a property out of the social housing stock at a big discount under false pretences. In this instance he was caught in time, and given an 18 month prison sentence.

A conman who tried to buy a council flat under the Right to Buy scheme was jailed after officers discovered he was illegally subletting it. (h/t Tenancy Fraud)

Babak Karimaghaei, 37, claimed to be living in a bedsit in Park View on the Highbury Park Estate when he applied to buy it. But Islington Council’s housing investigations team discovered he was living somewhere else, and he was prosecuted before he could get a £103,000 discount.

On Friday, March 31 at Blackfriars Crown Court, Karimaghaei was convicted of fraud by false representation, and jailed for 18 months.

Sentencing him, judge Richardson said: “Immediate custody is required to punish a cynical abuse of a right intended for people who were really living in the house which they were applying to buy.”

Town hall housing boss Cllr Diarmaid Ward said Right-to-Buy fraud took housing away from the people who badly needed it and profited fraudsters like Karimaghaei. “We will investigate all suspected right-to-buy fraud, take legal action where there is evidence, and pursue the strongest penalties against offenders,” he said.

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A woman who claimed to be severely disabled while working in a bridal shop has been ordered to pay back more than £30,000 with her husband.

Christina Soulsby, aged 62, and Cyril Soulsby, aged 66, will have to sell a property to meet the debt or face a prison sentence, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

She pleaded guilty to an £11,000 benefit fraud after she was trapped by undercover surveillance.

Soulsby falsely claimed Disability Living Allowance on the basis that she had severe arthritis and other ailments, the court heard just before Christmas. And her husband Syd, aged 66, admitted fraudulently he had pocketed pension credit of more than £21,000 despite the fact that his wife was working.

They were handed prison sentences but summonsed back to the court under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Judge Paul Darlow ruled that Cyril Soulsby had to pay back £21,508 within three months or else face an eight-month prison sentence. He said that Christina Soulsby had to pay back £11,388 in the same period or she too could be locked up for eight months.

Mike Brown, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said their assets had been assessed as £59,000 each. He added they would have to sell property to meet the debt.

The couple, from Derriford, were handed a 26-week prison sentence suspended for two years. They must also pay £100 victim surcharge each.

Christina Soulsby worked at the Sam Cox salon in Southside Street, the Barbican. Investigators from the Department for Work and Pensions set up undercover surveillance outside the shop.

She claimed DLA without telling the DWP that her mobility had improved – allowing her to work. She also claimed Employment Support Allowance while failing to declare she was working beyond the permitted hours.

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A glamour model who starred in a Playboy film has been ordered to repay £50,000 fraudulently claimed in disability benefits.

Julia Martinez, 45, claimed more than £44,000 over a three-year period despite earning money from photo shoots and movies. Martinez, who also runs a photography company, got £27,900 of income support and £14,112 of disability benefit. The Cheltenham resident claimed a further £2,178 in council tax relief before her home was raided in 2012.

Police found Martinez held bank accounts in the UK and overseas, including the Isle of Man and Jersey, a court heard.

She pleaded guilty to five charges of falsely claiming benefits and in 2015 got a nine-month jail sentence, suspended for one year. Now she has been slapped with a confiscation order for the sum of £50,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

George Threlfall, QC, prosecuting, told the court Martinez had shown a "pattern of mendacity" in the two years since her conviction.

He claimed her available assets were "greater than" declared and she'd sold a Spanish property for 110,000 euros (£92,000). She'd also "failed to provide details for" bank accounts in Spain, Jersey and the Isle of Man, Mr Threlfall said.

He said: "Her available assets we say are much greater than what we can actually establish. The fact is she has been hiding assets. That in itself really casts a shadow. She sold a property in Spain for 110,000 euros and we don't know what happened to the money."

He added that she'd been ordered to repatriate money from her foreign accounts in 2012, but hadn't done so. "There has been no repayment of the monies obtained fraudulently which of course is … the purpose of these proceedings," he said.

Lisa Freeman, offering mitigation for Martinez, said "assumptions" could not be made on the extent of Martinez's wealth. She said: "Miss Martinez was sentenced on the basis that the application was not fraudulent from the outset. There was a change in her circumstances of which the DWP should have been informed - that's when the two other benefits kicked in."

Judge William Hart said there was "no actuarial evidence to substantiate" the argument that Martinez's claim had not been dishonest at the outset.

A court previously heard that inspectors found she had "appeared in a Playboy film". Details of the film were not disclosed, but it was released on DVD.

Martinez had a successful acting, modelling and photographic career and used an alias to send money to Spain in a bid to avoid detection.

She was given a confiscation order in the sum of £50,000, which she has three months to pay, under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. The judge ruled £2,100 will be deducted from the full amount and paid as compensation to Cheltenham Borough Council. She will also be forced to pay £8,050 in costs. If she doesn't pay up, she will be jailed for nine months.

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A Brexhill priest who claims to provide pastoral care for the terminally ill has been found guilty of fraud charges after using a Blue Badge belonging to a deceased woman.

A jury found William Haymaker, 62, guilty of the offence when he appeared at Chichester Crown Court. A date for sentencing has yet to be set.

Haymaker, an ordained Anglican minister, was caught using the Blue Badge to park in a disabled bay in Western Road, Bexhill in December 2015. The holder of the badge had died in October 2015.

In interview Haymaker said he had meant to use a Blue Badge belonging to one or two other patients, one of whom he claimed to have dropped off at a doctor’s surgery in the town. Investigations found that neither of these statements were true.

Haymaker continued to plead his innocence and the case went to the crown court.

In his defence he named yet another woman who he had thought the badge had belonged to, although she has never owned a Blue Badge. When confronted with these facts, Haymaker then went on to claim that he had not realised he had parked in a disabled bay at all.

A jury took 45 minutes to unanimously find him guilty of possessing an article for use in a fraud.

Mark Jobling, East Sussex County Council’s enforcement officer who caught Haymaker misusing the Blue Badge, said: “This is in no way a victimless crime. Every time someone fraudulently uses a blue badge, they are taking up spaces which are needed by people who are genuinely disabled. We were disappointed that Haymaker consistently refused to admit the offence, but this case clearly demonstrates how seriously we take the misuse of Blue Badges. We hope this sends out a strong message that Blue Badge fraud will not be tolerated in East Sussex and that we won’t hesitate to prosecute offenders.”

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A West Midlands Police officer who lied to cover up a £20,000 benefit fraud has been jailed for a year.

PC Steven Cook initially denied he was in a relationship with his girlfriend who wrongly claimed housing, income support and council tax benefits over a two-and-a-half year period.

An investigation was carried out by Sandwell Council with the support of West Midlands Police and the 38 year-old later admitted perverting the course of justice.

He was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and ordered to pay £750 costs at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday 21 April.

The officer - who was based in Birmingham when the allegations came to light - was suspended by the force. Following the sentencing he will now face gross misconduct disciplinary proceedings.

Chief Inspector Brian Carmichael, from the force’s Professional Standards Department, said: “We demand the highest standards from all our officers and PC Cook failed to show the level of honesty and integrity we expect from someone in such a position of trust."

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A former soldier from Leeds helped his partner carry out part of a benefit fraud as she falsely claimed just over £24,000 in housing benefits and tax credits.

Leeds Crown Court heard Sara Elliot, 34, failed to notify authorities of her change in circumstance when she and her three children moved from a three bedroom council house in Harehills to her partner David Pollard’s two-bedroom flat in Beeston in 2013.

Pollard, 35, had claimed to be Elliot’s landlord when the pair were living as a couple and a false tenancy agreement was submitted to claim housing benefit between September 2014 and March 2016.

A total of £19,494 was overpaid in tax credits and £4,626 housing benefit was overpaid. The couple have a child together but have since split up.

Elliot admitted three charges of benefit fraud and Pollard admitted one charge of assisting Elliot to commit benefit fraud.

The court heard Pollard had served in the army for nine years and did tours in Bosnia and Northern Ireland. He now works as a train conductor for Northern Rail.

Anna Moran, mitigating for Pollard, said: “He went to Asda and collected a pre-packed tenancy agreement and asked her to submit it for a housing benefit claim. He is extremely sorry for his involvement. The money was not used for any sort of frivolous lifestyle. The money was used to support the family.”

Nicoleta Alistari, mitigating for Elliot, said she is “ashamed and remorseful.”

Judge Mushtaq Khokhar sentenced both defendants to four month jail sentences, suspended for 18 months. Pollard was also ordered to do 200 hours unpaid community work.

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A reality TV star who boasted about earning £120,000 a year and being given expensive gifts was fraudulently claiming benefits, a court has heard.

Chelsey Harwood, 29 and of St Helens, admitted three benefit fraud offences involving a total of £25,156 between April 2013 and January 2016.

She was living in a "fantasy" world, judge Andrew Menary QC said.

Handing her a suspended jail term at Liverpool Crown Court, he warned her about her "unhealthy" lifestyle.

He said her claims for employment support allowance and housing benefit had initially been genuine but became false when she began earning from her self-employed work and moved from Liverpool to St Helens and made a fresh claim for housing benefit.

The former This is Liverpool and Celebrity Botched Up Bodies star, who is transgender, had boasted to an online magazine that she had made £120,000 by talking to men on a webcam.

Judge Menary said: "In those posts you bragged about your level of earnings, making what seems to me clearly extravagant claims about the amounts you were able to earn from payments and gifts."

He said whatever money she did have would have been spent "on her ordinary day-to-day living, rather an entirely hedonistic lifestyle as you were pretending".

He told Harwood that he recognised the fact that her "gender issues have complicated your life to this point and created challenges in the past and the unhealthy celebrity-type lifestyle you have sought to create, or courted online, means you have been living in a somewhat fantasy world. You have known for some time what you were doing was dishonest, there was nothing healthy about the lifestyle you chose or the other choices you made to project yourself online. You need to understand, sooner rather than later, that your future happiness and wellbeing lies in your own hands and requires you to adopt a much more responsible and constructive approach to life in future."

He sentenced her to four months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, and placed her under supervision for two years.

Ben Jones, prosecuting, told the court the prosecution could not say how much she was earning but she had "a measure of celebrity and was writing articles in Closer magazine. "There may have been some element of bragging" in those articles, he added.

John Rowan, defending, said that she had received media payments of £14,389 over the period of the offences, which was "relatively modest". He said his client was "remorseful and shameful for her actions".

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But she's not sorry.

When asked whether she’d apologise to taxpayers, she revealed she was “not one little bit sorry”.

She added: “I pay road tax, I pay cigarette tax. I pay my tax. I’m not saying sorry, I’m not sorry one little bit.”

A dead man’s blue badge was fraudulently used by his son to park on double yellow lines in Chester city centre .

Guissepe Malanga, from Boughton, Chester, has been ordered to pay fines and costs totalling more than £1,300 after he was caught by a council traffic warden.

Valid disabled blue badge holders are permitted to park on double yellow lines for a maximum of three hours. A council enforcement officer approached Malanga’s vehicle parked on double yellow lines in St Werburgh Street on September 19, 2016, at 2.15pm where he observed the time clock on the badge was set to 10.30am.

The officer also noticed the name on the badge Armando Malanga did not match with the name ‘Guissepe’ given by a female passenger, while Malanga was away from his vehicle visiting the NatWest bank.

And the officer recognised the photograph of the badge holder as a well-known male who had died some months ago. Subsequent investigations confirmed Armando Malanga had passed away on February 5, 2016, and the badge should have been returned to the council.

At Chester Magistrates Court , Malanga was fined £250 and ordered to pay full costs of £1,076 along with a victim surcharge of £30 – a total of £1,356.

Maria Byrne, director of place operations at Cheshire West and Chester Council, said: “This successful prosecution shows that we are committed to preserving the integrity of the disabled blue badge scheme and will take appropriate action against people who abuse and misuse the scheme. Blue badge misuse is a serious crime that prevents people who genuinely have a disability from being able to find a suitable space to park.”

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A Desborough woman who claimed she was homeless to secure council housing, despite owning two properties, has been evicted. (h/t Tenancy Fraud)

Carol Rae, 60, was convicted of tenancy fraud in August 2016 at Northampton Magistrates’ Court and fined £1,500 plus costs.

Rae had approached Kettering Council in May 2014 claiming to be homeless and, as a result, she was provided with temporary accommodation until she moved in to Hazeland House in 2014.

However, when applying for council housing, Mrs Rae failed to disclose that she already owned two properties for which she was receiving a substantial rental income.

Kettering Council has now evicted Rae from her council property.

At last!

Kettering Council’s head of housing John Conway said:

Where housing applicants lie, or fail to disclose their true circumstances to us, we will not hesitate to use the powers available to us to prosecute and evict offenders. It is wholly unacceptable for anyone to provide false information or withhold relevant information about being homeless in order to obtain housing from the council.

Cheryl Henwood, married to a policeman, went all the way in resisting the tax credit fraud charges against her. She declined to answer questions after her arrest and then pleaded not guilty at her trial. She was detected in March 2011 but her case only came to court in September 2013, when she was jailed for a year.

At the time this seemed like a long delay. But only now has she been banned from nursing!

A benefit cheat nurse who splashed out on luxury living while pretending to be a struggling single mother has lost her career after being banned from the profession.

Cheryl Fiona Henwood, of Heswall, Wirral, was jailed for a year after she scammed more than £90,000 in taxpayers’ money.

Despite being described as a “competent and caring clinician”, she has now been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

A disciplinary panel in London heard the district nurse claimed she was bringing up her children on her own, while in fact she was married and living with her policeman husband. The fraud spanned seven years, during which she also claimed tax credits at a higher rate than she was entitled to for one of her children.

An investigation by HMRC revealed Henwood had spent money on expensive holidays to Florida and Dubai, owned a jetski and bought a pony for one of her children.

She was locked up after being found guilty of 12 counts of being knowingly concerned in fraudulent activity at Liverpool Crown Court in 2013.

Henwood repaid the money, plus extra for inflation, before being sentenced. But the NMC panel said it considered that, by committing the offences, she had shown a “disregard for the laws of the country” and brought the nursing profession into disrepute.

Lawyers acting for Henwood asked the panel to impose a five-year order of conditions on her nursing practice, which would allow her to continue with her job at a nursing home. They said she had worked at the home for two years without further incident, and the panel heard she had been trusted with money and valuables in her role.

But, removing her from the nursing register, the panel concluded she could not continue working as a nurse because of her “serious dishonesty”.

Announcing the decision, an NMC spokesman said: “Members of the public would not expect a nurse who enjoys a privileged standing in society to defraud the public purse in excess of £92,000. Such behaviour demonstrates a significant departure for many years from the standards expected of a registered nurse.”

He added: “The panel concluded that nothing short of a striking-off order would be sufficient. Such a sanction is necessary to mark the serious nature of the dishonesty and to send a clear message to the public and the profession about the standards of conduct and behaviour expected of a registered nurse. By defrauding the public purse for a period of seven years, the reputation of the profession has been adversely affected. Members of the public would be appalled to find that a registered nurse, a professional in a position of trust in society, would behave in such a way.”

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A woman who attacked a council parking attendant has admitted using a disabled badge to park for free in the centre of Bath.

Lamia Messoud pleaded guilty to parking a silver Audi in a disabled Henry Street parking bay on December 12 2016. The Blue badge displayed in the vehicle at the time belonged to her father, who officers discovered was not present.

Parking wardens saw Messoud, from Trowbridge, return to the car with a man after around 40 minutes later with Primark bags. Officers began explaining their concerns but the "two people did not look at them and locked it (the car)" prosecutor Ed Hetherington said at Bath Magistrates' Court on April 24. One of the officers then stood in front of the vehicle "and was driven into twice" the court heard. The police were called as the car drove away.

Messoud, the driver, admitted attacking the Bath and North East Somerset Council parking attendant. She received the maximum fine of £1,000 plus a £100 victim surcharge, and was ordered to pay £395 in court costs. She initially denied the charge.

In a separate case a Keynsham woman said she was "very sorry" after being caught using her son's blue badge. Dorothy Smith displayed the badge to park in a bay on Somerset Street on January 23 2017. The badge had expired in 2016.

Parking enforcement officers saw Smith return to the car an hour later with shopping. She pleaded guilty via post and was fined £450, was ordered to pay £395 court costs and a victim surcharge of £45.

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A care worker has been caught using a blue badge which belonged to a former patient to park in Bath. Natasha Elaine McPhillips, from Radstock, parked her Citroen C1 on St James' Parade on August 19 2016. Displayed on the windscreen was a blue badge in the name of a Mr John Allen.

McPhillips did not appear at Bath Magistrates' Court for her hearing on April 24 but pleaded guilty in advance to fraud and unlawfully using the blue badge. She had used Mr Allen's cancelled badge, who she had previously looked after, for 18 months. McPhillips had known the man through a previous job but had kept his blue badge. She now works for a new employer within the care sector.

Prosecutor Mr Ed Hetherington explained how she obtained the badge when she "admitted to parking and displaying the badge after she has taken Mr Allen to hospital." He added she felt she had made a "bad error of judgement" and felt "foolish."

She was fined £450, ordered to pay court costs of £515 and a £45 victim surcharge.

Bath woman Alicia Jane Townsend used her mother's blue badge to park outside The Forum on Somerset Street earlier this year. She displayed the badge in her car on January 23 2017 while she went shopping. Mr Hetherington said Townsend returned an hour after parking up, where she told parking enforcement officers the badge belonged to her mother, who was not present. Ironically she told the officers "it was good that you are doing this" to fight parking "misuse" the court heard. But she refused to say where her mum was after admitting to going shopping in Bath.

Mr Hetherington said she has since apologised and "wouldn't normally use the badge in this circumstance." She didn't appear in court but pleaded guilty by post. She was fined £450, ordered to pay court costs of £395 and a £45 victim surcharge.

Penelope Chainey, from Trowbridge, appeared at Bath Magistrates' Court where she admitted parking in a disabled drivers' bay on Henry Street on December 12 2016. She parked her white Range Rover with a blue badge displayed which belonged to her father, although he wasn't present. She told enforcement officers she was carrying out errands for her dad who was a patient at the Royal United Hospital.

She told the court: "I was in a bit of a panic. I rushed down to take stuff and then went back to the hospital." She apologised stating she "had never done it before."

She was fined £660, ordered to pay court fees of £395 and a £66 victim surcharge.

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A benefit cheat mum-of-five who was put under surveillance by the Department for Work and Pensions was found to have falsely claimed nearly £70,000.

Grandmother Mona Miller, 37, from Cardiff , admitted failing to notify the authorities of a change in circumstances affecting her entitlement to income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

Sentencing at Cardiff Crown Court , Judge Neil Bidder QC told the defendant: “This is stealing from the state – that is what you have pleaded guilty to.”

The court heard the charges related to the five-year period between May 2010 and November 2015.

Andrew Jones, prosecuting, said Miller received a total overpayment of £69,367.

He said she first made a claim for income support in March 2001, which she continued to receive legitimately for the next 10 years.

The court heard she stated in 2011 that she did not have a partner and in 2013 stated she did have a partner but he lived in London. Mr Jones said: “That was an outright lie.”

Prosecutors said she was put under surveillance by the Department for Work and Pensions who found her partner had registered his vehicle at her address in Cardiff. The court heard the authorities made “significant enquiries” and discovered he registered for national insurance at her address from May 2010. Enquiries also revealed he registered with a doctors surgery in Cardiff in October 2011.

In a police interview Miller accepted she had two children with her partner but stated he did not provide any financial support. Mr Jones said: “The whole interview was a lie from start to finish.”

He told the court she had repaid £1,809.88 by living on reduced benefits but still had £67,557.22 outstanding.

Miller, from Llanrumney , Cardiff, admitted three counts of benefit fraud.

Catherine Flint, defending, said her client’s claim was not fraudulent from the outset and there was no evidence she had been living a “lavish” lifestyle. She told the court Miller has four dependent children and is also a grandmother.

Ms Flint said the defendant met her partner via online dating in February 2011 and the pair spent time travelling between Cardiff and London. She said Miller described the relationship as “on-and-off” and was scared to declare it in case the relationship broke down and she was left with no income.

The defence barrister added: “There was an element of naïvety on her part – she was burying her head in the sand.” Ms Flint said her client had no previous convictions and was “very remorseful”.

Judge Bidder told the defendant: “You told deliberate lies – they were clearly deliberate lies – in order to benefit yourself. The system just cannot work unless people are honest. If someone actually took £70,000 in cash in one go I would have thought you would expect that person to be sent to prison. It is a very, very bad example to set your children.”

Miller was jailed for eight months suspended for two years. She was ordered to complete 30 days of a rehabilitation activity, plus 80 hours of unpaid work and pay a £140 victim surcharge.

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A scrap metal dealer claimed benefits and failed to pay tax while his business was turning over hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

Cardiff Crown Court was told more than £600,000 passed through Darren Jones’ bank account during the two years he was running Merthyr Metals Limited. Judge Jeremy Jenkins told him: “This was greed – pure and simple.” The court heard 50-year-old Jones should have paid around £25,000 in income tax and £93,000 in VAT between 2013 and 2015. Matthew Roberts, prosecuting, said the defendant also wrongly claimed about £17,000 in Employment and Support Allowance.

Prosecutors said the business, which was based in Georgetown, Merthyr Tydfil, involved buying scrap metal and selling it on. Mr Roberts said: “A substantial amount of income was being generated.”

The court heard Jones was not eligible for benefits, but wrongly stated on an application for Employment and Support Allowance that he was earning £93.30 a week.

Mr Roberts added: “This was a dishonest endeavour from the outset by this defendant.”

Prosecutors said his failure to pay tax and dishonest claim for benefits meant he gained more than £135,000 to which he was not entitled.

The court heard he had previous convictions for dishonestly dating back to the 1970s and was convicted last summer of theft and handling stolen goods.

Jones, from High Street in Merthyr Tydfil, admitted fraudulent evasion of income tax and VAT. He also pleaded guilty to failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions of a change in circumstances affecting his entitlement to benefits.

Laurence Jones, defending, told the court Merthyr Metals Limited was his client’s first business. He said: “He was not in any way, shape or form experienced in the way of business. He was completely naïve and inexperienced and he accepts wholly inadequate record keeping.”

Mr Jones said his client, a sole trader, invested money he had inherited into the business, which he has now lost. He added: “He is no astute businessman. He completely stuck his head in the sand. He had never run a business before and was clearly overwhelmed by the responsibility.”

The defence barrister told the court his client had been addicted to amphetamine, but is now drug-free. Mr Jones argued the defendant, a father-of-one, showed remorse through his guilty pleas.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Jenkins told the defendant: “When you were arrested by the police, you claimed that you had not made any profit at all. But the reality was something quite different. Between December 2013 and December 2015, more than £600,000 passed through your account. That is a staggering amount of money for a sole trading business operation.” He noted the company ran without any paperwork at all.

Judge Jenkins said it was “staggering” the defendant claimed benefits while operating a “highly profitable business”. The judge added: “You were claiming benefits while you were making money hand over fist. You claimed naivety, but you knew exactly what you were doing. In my judgement, this offending was so flagrant and dishonest from the outset that only a sentence of immediate custody can be justified.”

Jones was jailed for 26 months and a hearing will take place under the Proceeds of Crime Act on August 21.

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A wealthy Pakistani couple who fraudulently claimed £40,000 a year in benefits after claiming asylum in Britain were jailed six months apart so their children didn’t have to be taken into care.

Syed Zaidi, 41, and his wife Rizwana Kamal, 40, claimed asylum seekers’ benefit, child tax and working tax credits and child benefits for their three children – on top of free accommodation – worth £150,000, despite having more than £250,000 in the bank.

The university graduates claimed they were being persecuted in their native Pakistan and urged the Home Office to give them shelter, claiming £150,000 worth of handouts. They splashed out on two cars and moved into a Victorian terraced house in Denton, near Manchester, but were caught after a tip-off to the Home Office. It is thought they won the right to stay in the UK during their four-year scam between 2012 and 2016.

At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester Judge Bernard Lever jailed the couple for ten months each after they admitted benefit fraud. But in an unusual move he delayed locking up Kamal until this week, after her husband was released having served half his sentence. It means their children will not be taken into care at further expense to the taxpayer.

Prosecutor John Wilcox told the court that £258,530 was left unaccounted for in the pair’s seven bank accounts.

The couple – believed to have entered the UK on Kamal’s student visa – were denied legal aid because of their huge savings, and represented themselves in court. Kamal begged Judge Lever to spare her jail, but he said he had to send a “powerful message” to the couple and other fraudsters.

Kamal said: “The children have been coming home from school upset, and they are all out of character and they are much more attached to me. This has been such a big lesson for us and it is a big embarrassment for this to have happened. Please don’t take me away from my children – they won’t be able to cope.”

But Judge Lever said: “This is a tragic case for your children because you and your husband both graduated university, you had thousands of pounds in the bank and you have claimed hardworking taxpayers’ money.”

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Despicable

A woman told lies about her own and her husband's income so she could pocket more than £30,000 in benefits – lavishing some of the cash on a trip to Australia.

Recruitment consultant Barbara Jones, aged 46, repeatedly submitted false accounts grossly underestimating the household earnings, a court heard. The figures meant she was paid full-rate housing benefit and council tax relief for four years.

Plymouth Crown Court heard that Jones one year estimated the income for herself and her gas and heating engineer husband Andrew as just £10,981 – but in fact it was £38,294.

Handing her a suspended prison sentence, Recorder Jane Rowley said: "Some of the benefits were spent on luxuries such as a trip to Australia. I find that this was lavish expenditure clearly funded by benefits to which you were not entitled."

The court heard that she was already paying back benefits at a rate of £150 per month, which will take 15 years to pay back – though her barrister added she was looking to up that amount.

Jones, from Efford, admitted six charges of making false statements to obtain benefit between 2011 and 2015. She was due to face trial on more serious alternative counts, but prosecutors accepted her pleas to lesser charges. All criminal charges have been dropped against Andrew Jones.

Jason Beal, prosecuting for Plymouth City Council, said the total Barbara Jones was overpaid amounted to £30,575, with more than £25,000 of that in housing benefit.

Mr Beal said that she submitted false accounts which repeatedly and grossly underestimated the couple's income. The defendant was then awarded housing benefit and council tax benefit at the maximum weight. He added that Jones also filled in change of address forms which falsely stated there had been no change in household income – when in fact their earnings were far greater than previously stated. The court heard that one year the couple, who have a daughter, earned £38,294 through work and legitimate benefits. But she submitted accounts for £10,981.

Mr Beal said that Jones was told they were under investigation in June 2015. She submitted new accounts the next day which were closer to the truth, but still underestimated their income. He added that the defendant claimed in interview that the accounts were full of errors and any discrepancies were neither dishonest nor deliberate. But Mr Beal said that the accounts never overestimated their income.

Ali Rafati, for Jones, said that the first accounts she submitted had been honest underestimates of the household income. But she had failed to submit new figures when more money came in. He added that Jones had lost her good name and the prosecution had been hanging over her for two years. Mr Rafati said she had already paid back about £3,500 and hoped to increase the amount of her repayments. He handed in a batch of character references.

Recorder Rowley told Jones: "This was a case of a sophisticated nature with substantial planning. You are a highly capable businesswoman." She added the defendant had taken "responsible steps" to pay back the money.

Jones was handed a ten-week jail term, suspended for 12 months, with 180 hours unpaid work. She must pay £1,000 prosecution costs.

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A woman who falsely claimed more than £27,000 has been forced to take out a £20,000 loan to pay most of the money back, a court has heard.

Barbara Fulwood, who was given a suspended jail sentence after admitting benefit fraud, received the cash on the basis that she needed help to do her shopping, ironing and cleaning. But she later started working as a housekeeper at a local care home without notifying the DWP of the change in her condition that meant she could work.

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing was told that she had benefited from her crimes by £27,155 but has repaid back £605 to the DWP. The court heard that she has available assets of £178,000, the majority of which is the equity in her home.

Judge Simon Hirst ordered that the outstanding amount of £26,550 should be confiscated from her. She was given three months to hand over the money.

David Eager, for Fulwood, said she has already raised £20,000 after taking out a loan against her property. He said she could pay that money immediately and is looking to raise the rest from friends and family.

When Fulwood was originally sentenced earlier this year Miss Edna Leonard, prosecuting, said she had initially made a legitimate claim for disability living allowance which was granted in 1995 due to mobility problems and other health issues.

Miss Leonard said: "The claim was legitimate at the outset but that changed when the defendant began working in May 2007. She was under a duty to notify the authorities of any change in her condition and failed to do so."

Fulwood, 62, from Marton, near Gainsborough, admitted a charge of fraud between May 9, 2007 and June 16, 2015. She was given a four-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months and a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

David Eager, for Fulwood, said: "She has let herself down. She knows what she has done is wrong. She is not someone who is swinging the lead. She has a number of health problems. She raised her children and they left home and so she was at a loose end and took up the employment. The amount of benefit she was receiving was not a living amount. She could barely survive."

Source

Talk about an unbelievable story.

A benefit cheat who claimed she did not know the home she lived in for five years was owned by her father has been given a two year suspended prison sentence.

Kerry Donoghue, formerly of Mill Way, Bushey was sentenced to two years in custody suspended for 21 months when she appeared at St Albans Crown Court. The 32-year-old was also ordered to undertake 200 hours of unpaid work, pay £1500 within 18 months in compensation to the council and has been put under a 12 months' supervision order. In addition, the judge imposed a six month curfew which restricts Donoghue's movements between 8pm and 6am.

Donoghue, who dishonestly claimed more than £40,000 worth of housing benefit over five years, had been found guilty of two counts of making a false representation and four counts of furnishing a false document at an earlier hearing.

During the trial, the jury heard that she had provided council officers with a false tenancy agreement which included misleading details about her landlord. An investigation by Hertsmere Borough Council later revealed the house had been bought by her father, Troy Donoghue, for £230,000 seven days before Donoghue moved in.

Sajida Bijle, the council's corporate director, said: “This case should serve as a sharp warning to potential benefit cheats that they too could end up living under the threat of a long custodial sentence. Ultimately Donoghue's actions have not only had an impact on herself, she has put other people who she knows and has involved unwittingly in her web of deceit at risk of prosecution. The wider community have also lost out as its through their taxes, fraudsters, like Donoghue, have funded their lifestyles. If you suspect someone may be fraudulently claiming benefits to help with their tenancy or council tax or have fraudulently applied for a blue badge, contact us straightaway.”

Between 26 November 2008 and 31 March 2014, Donoghue claimed £43,426.40 in housing benefit.

Donoghue told the court she paid rent to her landlord in cash on the 1st of every month. However, no deposit was paid and there are no records of the rent payments.

Following a tip-off from the Department of Work and Pensions, council officers established the property was purchased by Mr Donoghue on 14 November 2008. His daughter moved in on 22 November 2008.

Donoghue claimed not to have had any contact with her father since she was 15 and that she was unaware he owned the property.

However, prosecutors insisted that was not the case and argued Donoghue had provided false tenancy agreements in order to disguise the fact she was living in her father’s property.

Source

We don't usually cover Northern Ireland. But we've made an exception here: social housing fraud is the wickedest form of benefit fraud - it's more than just money, it's depriving people of a home.

But the money's not trivial. If temporary housing costs £18,000 a year, the saving from this little local exercise is £288,000.

And if this can be saved in Derry, imagine what savings are available nationally.

Sadly, though, reclaiming 16 properties won't dent a waiting list which extends to 3,500 in Derry alone.

The Housing Executive has confirmed it has carried out over 70 tenancy fraud investigations in Derry over the past year. (h/t FraudManager)

A total of 16 properties have been recovered as a result of the 76 investigations conducted across the city during the year from April 2016 to the end of March 2017.

The figures were obtained after the Housing Executive announced an amnesty for fraudsters during the month of May as long as they hand their keys back.

The majority of the fraud investigations were conducted in the Waterside area of Derry last year. As a result of 42 probes launched, seven properties were recovered on Derry’s east bank.

A further 19 cases were investigated in the area covered by the HE’s Collon Terrace office, with six homes recovered, while another 15 were conducted from the Waterloo office of the Housing Executive in the city centre, with three properties recovered.

A spokesperson for the Housing Executive said:

In the year 2015/16, in keeping with PAC recommendations, the NIHE established an evidenced based baseline figure for the level of tenancy fraud within NIHE stock. The baseline figure was calculated as 0.6%; incorporating a 95% tolerance, this means that tenancy fraud levels would range between 0.12% and 1.08% of NIHE stock. The 2016/17 baselining exercise is not yet complete (two cases remain under investigation)but indications are that the baseline level of tenancy fraud will be in keeping with the range identified in previous audits.

Tenancy fraud includes not occupying a home, providing false or incomplete information on housing or homeless, and sub-letting your home without permission. The Housing Executive warned that tenancy fraud was unfairly depriving people on the Social Housing Waiting List.

By the start of 2017 there were almost 3,500 families or single applicants in Derry waiting to be housed.

Source

A Leeds woman dishonestly claimed more than £20,000 in benefits by claiming she was a single mother despite living with her husband.

Joanne Frankland, 31, carried out the deception for four years, claiming job seekers’ allowance, housing and council tax benefit which she was not entitled to. She began the offending in 2009.

Rukshanda Hussain, prosecuting, said Frankland married her husband in October 2010 but failed to inform authorities of her change in circumstances. Leeds Crown Court heard investigators obtained evidence to show she was illegally claiming benefits, including a marriage certificate which showed she shared the same address as her partner. A copy of his wage slip also revealed his salary was being paid directly into her bank account.

Frankland refused to admit what she had done when interviewed and challenged investigators to prove that she had broken the law.

A judge described her behaviour as “manipulative and dishonest.”

Mother-of-two Frankland pleaded guilty to three offences of benefit fraud. Simon Alexander, mitigating, said the offending took place at a time when Frankland’s relationship with her partner was “toxic”.

This included the time when she married him.

He said it had been an on-off relationship and she did not stop claiming benefits due to the financial uncertainties. She was given a six month prison sentence, suspended for two years. She was also ordered to 240 hours of unpaid work.

Source

Easy, wasn't it.

A benefits cheat who claimed pension top-ups despite having more that quarter of a million pounds in the bank has been spared jail.

Frenny Doe plundered more than £30,000 in pension credits over a five year period after failing to declare the cash sloshing about in his bank account. But after hearing the 74-year-old, who lives in a mobile home, has paid back what he took a judge at Swindon Crown Court imposed a suspended sentence.

Chris Smyth, prosecuting, said Doe first made his claim from the Benefits Agency by phone in July 2010, continuing it until he was found out in December 2015.

When he applied he declared savings of between £4,000 and £5,000, which was below the permitted capital allowance. But in reality the former businessman had £256,995 in the joint bank account he held with his wife.

Doe admitted the money came from the sale of a property and claimed he did not think it counted. When it became apparent he would be prosecuted he said that the £32,061.05p he should not have received was repaid in full.

Doe, from Lydiard Plain, admitted making a dishonest representation to obtain benefits.

Delivering an oral report probation officer Karen Fowler said he told her the money had come from the sale of a plot of land in Winchester. It had been £600,000 but she said he had used some to buy a plot of land and mobile homes for his children to live in on the same plot as his. He had been informed by friends that he could claim pension credits, she said, and that he wasn't aware he had to declare the savings.

She said he had a number of health problems including diabetes and had stents fitted in arteries near his heart. Also, she said, his wife has had Crohn's disease, had been through leukaemia and thyroid issues and he has been her carer for many years.

Michael Butt, defending, said all of the remainder of the savings had now gone, much dissipated to his children, which meant he was now entitled to the benefit.

So you can give money away and then live on taxpayers?

But he said should his client be made subject to a curfew he had booked a cruise for next month.

I thought the rest of his savings were gone?

In the past he said he had run a pallet business which he sold up when he retired about ten years ago, Mr Butt said. He said that he resides in a mobile home and the cash hadn't been spent on lavish living.

Imposing an eight month jail term suspended for 18 months Judge Tim Mousley QC said "This is a serious offence, as all cases of benefit fraud are. I take into account that you are remorseful for what you did and that you cooperated with the investigation".

Source

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Benefit cheat with £250,000 in the bank spared jail