A landlord who did not repair a decaying former hotel has been fined £14,900. Teeside Magistrates’ Court found Rajesh Kumar Gupta guilty of failing to repair roofing and guttering at the former Royal Hotel, in Loftus. He had been ordered to make the repairs repetitively by Redcar and Cleveland Council. Gupta did not attend
A benefits cheat who falsely £78,000 claims she is ‘unfit’ to complete her community service. Kathryn Leathard, 30, pretended to be a single mum for five years in order to get tax credits, income support, council tax benefit and housing benefit. However, authorities found she had been living with her partner. Leathard
A Russian oligarch immersed in Britain’s most expensive divorce has lost a crucial court battle to avoid paying his ex-wife more than £450m. Farkhad Akhmedov refused to pay his ex the huge sum after claiming he was already divorced when they lived in Moscow. After he refused to accept a ruling by a British court
A woman and her estranged son are immersed in a courtroom dispute over a family estate. After Stephen Moore was written out of his parents will, he successfully challenged the move in 2016, claiming his father, who now lives in a care home and has advanced dementia, repeatedly promised the estate would all be his
A man from Renfrewshire has admitted claiming benefits on his mother’s behalf that she was not entitled to. Stewart Connelly who was authorised to act on behalf of his mother, Amelia Connelly, failed to disclose all her savings. He told Renfrewshire Council she had a bank account which contained £6,367 in savings, but she actually
An ex- Tory councillor who claimed he could not even wash his own hair was secretly filmed hauling away tables at a summer fair. Albert Pounder, 74, illegally claimed £10,422 in Disability Living Allowance from 2014 to 2016 and £467 housing benefit in 2016. Preston Crown Court heard he failed to notify the Department of
A woman who claimed £144,977.88 in benefits she was not entitled to over a six-and-a-half year period has avoided jail. Pauline Donaghy, 42, was handed a 12-month prison sentence, which was suspended for two years and she is now paying back £25 a week. Belfast Crown Court noted it will take around 100 years to
Over £296,000 in benefits were claimed fraudulently or in error over the past year from West Dunbartonshire Council. Their corporate fraud team identified the money as part of 228 referrals from members of the public, 199 of which had grounds to be investigated. 15 cases have been passed on to the procurator fiscal which has
A 63-year-old woman was in court for an £11,000 benefit fraud. Marie Lawson was overpaid £11,169 over a two-year period between May 2014 and March 2016. Lawson claimed employment support allowance for herself and her husband from October 2013. The benefits were paid out on the condition that she did not work more than 16
A Hyndburn landlord has been given a suspended prison sentence after failing to check an unsafe boiler and gas. Steven Ladell, from Great Harwood, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive after serious faults were uncovered at a house in King’s Lynn last year. One of his tenants had approached housing standards officials at