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 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 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 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
An unmarried mother has won a landmark Supreme Court case to access widowed parent’s allowance for her children after she was denied bereavement payments following her partner’s death. Siobhan McLaughlin, 46, was initially refused the benefit payments because she was not married to her partner, who died of cancer in January 2014. Campaigners have called this ruling “hugely important”