benefitlegalservices@mail.com
0800 099 6270

benefit fraud solicitors

‘Greedy’ grandfather receives jail time for £53k benefit fraud

Greedy’ grandfather receives jail time for £53k benefit fraud

A grandfather has fraudulently claimed over £50,000 in benefits by failing to disclose that his wife wasn’t working full-time.

Michael Taylor, 65, was caught out after an anonymous tip alerted the Department of Work and Pensions, leading to an investigation. The DWP determined that Taylor’s wife, Yvonne, had a full-time job working as a host for a train company. Taylor had failed to declare this employment for over six years.

Derby Crown Court prosecutor Daniel White stated that the amount of fraudulent benefits Taylor had been overpaid reached £53,623.13. Of that, White said, £48,774.77 was income support, while £4,297.16 was housing benefit, and a further £551.20 was given to Taylor in the form of council tax reductions.

The grandfather was handed a six-month stint in prison, suspended for two years. Recorder Edward Cole said that the failure to disclose this information ‘was not blatant’ and ‘he simply did not think’ to inform the relevant authorities about his wife’s changes in circumstance.

Mr White stated that Taylor, a resident of Sudbury, had submitted these claims between October of 2008 and November of 2014, during which period he claimed his wife wasn’t employed.

‘Investigations discovered that his wife Yvonne was working as a host for a local train line company and should this have been declared he would not have received these overpayments,’ White said. ‘We say this is aggravated by the fact that in June 2014, he lied when declaring to the local council (as part of a claim) that his wife was not working.

‘He was interviewed in February 2015 and the allegations were put to him. He claimed he did not know how many hours his wife worked as that money went into a joint bank account that he never looked at. He said his benefit payments went into a bank account in his name only.’

Mr Taylor pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud, however Mr White conceded the point that his claims had not been fraudulent from the outset. Justin Ablott, mitigating, stated that his client pled guilty as soon as he possibly could, and had already begun repaying the money he had fraudulently claimed, at a monthlu rate of £108.

In addition to his suspended jail sentence, Recorder Cole give Taylor a six-month curfew, which confines him to his home between the hours of 7pm and 7am, seven days a week.

Photo: Gavel by walknboston licensed under Creative commons 2