Housing benefit cheat jailed for a year
A MAN who illegally claimed benefits for 10 years after tricking the authorities into believing he was a tenant in a house he part-owned was jailed on Friday.
Alan Fenn-Smith received both housing benefit and council tax benefit from North Kesteven District Council as a tenant without revealing that he and his father actually jointly owned the property near Sleaford.
Fayyaz Afzhal, prosecuting, told Lincoln Crown Court that Fenn-Smith claimed 29,792 to which he was not entitled before the ownership of the house was discovered when his father Reginald made a separate claim for benefit.
This was over a prolonged period of time during which repeated claims were made.
Fenn-Smith, 42, of Mount Lane, Kirkby la Thorpe, admitted six charges of making false representation to obtain benefit on dates between November 17, 1997 and November 20, 2007. He was jailed for 12 months.
Judge Michael Heath told him: "You abused the benefit system. You had benefit money paid to you which had been contributed by hard-working taxpayers.
"Over 10 years you were downright dishonest. You repeatedly made fraudulent claims."
Tony Stanford, defending, claimed Fenn-Smith acted naively when he took out t he mortgage along with his father.
"He sustained various injuries in a motorcycle accident and has been unable to work for a number of years," Mr Stanford added.
"He is due for a hip replacement soon. He has had several knee operations and in December last year he had an operation on his shoulder.
"Following this accident he was on crutches for two years. He has been unable to work through no fault of his own."
Mr Stanford said: "If he is deprived of his liberty he will lose his house and a family which is already in dire financial circumstances will be in an even worse situation."
Reginald Fenn-Smith, 71, also of Kirkby la Thorpe, was cleared of benefit fraud charges after the prosecution offered no evidence against him.
In addition, routine checks found his son had substantial sums of money in his bank accounts when he had claimed he had no capital or savings.
District council executive board member Stewart Ogden said after the case: "We hope this is a stark warning to people who are dishonest about their personal status.
"Paying benefits to people who are not entitled not only affects those who are in real need but also taxpayers across the district who have to carry the burden of this crime."
* The council still claims Adam Fenn-Smith owes a further 14,000 in overpaid benefits and is pursuing this through the civil courts.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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