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
A 70-year-old man has been sentenced after wrongly claiming almost £20,000 in benefits, assisted by his wife who was herself a benefit fraud investigator. Paul Stevens told the Department for Work and Pensions that he needed help bathing, dressing, cooking and getting in and out of bed. Stevens claimed he was in constant pain, needed crutches to
A landlord has been banned from renting out rooms after he took advantage of vulnerable tenants. Robert Crow, 69, is accused of letting his tenants live in filthy and dangerous conditions and failing to carry out basic maintenance. The court heard water was left leaking through lights and tenants lived with an insanitary kitchen and
A 72-year-old man has avoided jail after claiming almost £25,000 in State benefits. Martin Oliver falsely claimed the benefits while working as a lorry driver and building a house on a plot of land he owned. Oliver pleaded guilty to four offences of dishonestly failing to notify the Department of Work and Pensions and his
A carer has been jailed for nine years for stealing more than £300,000 from a vulnerable 102-year-old woman and ordered to pay back the cash. Carer, Julie Sayles, 60, used her position to steal from Edith Negus. Sayles conned Negus after setting up a joint account with her as she knew the pensioner had saved
A former council officer has been jailed for three years for stealing over £100,000 in benefits. Sancho Jayaratnam, aged 58 from Bushey, was caught by police and Harrow Council committing multiple acts of fraud. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of position . Jayaratnam, a former benefit assessor for the council,
A landlord has been ordered to pay almost £40,000 over a series of safety breaches at his flats in Birmingham, described as the worst property seen by inspectors in a decade. Birmingham city council said David Greene, 64, showed “callous disregard” for his responsibilities at the property, which was converted into ten flats. Offences included
A 74-year-old woman who was accused of a £21,000 benefit fraud has been disowned by her family members. Josephine Robinson was ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work and pay £170 costs. Magistrates’ chairman Toby Prosser said, “It was close to custody. It was a serious amount of money you were overpaid.” Robinson admitted
Over £70million was lost to fraudsters or wrongly paid out every week, an increase of £200m on the previous year. The Department for Work and Pensions admitted more than £2 of every £100 paid out in welfare is now a “mistake.” James Price, campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said, “We have to crack down