{"id":7040,"date":"2014-11-21T10:48:46","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T10:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/11\/21\/benefit-fraudster-jailed\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T14:12:38","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T14:12:38","slug":"benefit-fraudster-jailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2014\/11\/21\/benefit-fraudster-jailed\/","title":{"rendered":"Benefit Fraudster Jailed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A pensioner has been jailed for falsely claiming \u00a313,000 worth of benefits<\/h3>\n

\"\"\/

\n72-year-old Ghulam Mohi Ud Din Raja told officials at Leicester City Council he only lived with his wife and rented his property from a private landlord, he in fact was living with three of his adult children and son-in-law, all of whom were employed. One of them owned the property, in Bowhill Grove, Thurnby Lodge, Leicester.<\/p>\n


\nRaja was sentenced at Leicester Magistrates Court pleading guilty to five counts of dishonestly making false statements to claim benefits. Prosecutor Nicki Agalamanyi told the court the defendant had made claims for housing and council tax benefit by filling out claim forms in 2011.<\/p>\n


\nShe said, \u201cMr Raja claimed benefit on the basis that it was just him and his wife living at the address who, between them, were without an income.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cHe said he paid \u00a3500 in rent a month to someone called Shazad Mahmood, whom he insisted was not a relative.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIn truth, his three adult children and son-in-law, who were working, were also residing at the property.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cAnd, furthermore, the property was owned by one of the sons \u2013 Ibrar Akhtar \u2013 so it was not a commercial tenancy.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe court heard that Raja had filled out the claim forms despite knowing he could be prosecuted for providing false information. In total, Raja had pocketed \u00a311,541 in housing benefit and \u00a31,632 in council tax benefit. None of the costs have been paid back and the city council also demanded he pay a further \u00a3703 in costs.<\/p>\n


\nThe fraud investigation began when Raja\u2019s son, Sajid Ali, applied for a taxi driver license to the city council from the same address. Checks were made on the electoral register and it was discovered that four adults were living in that address.<\/p>\n


\nDefending, Amjid Ibrahim, said although his client\u2019s \u201cpoor English\u201d was no excuse but he did not intentionally set out to lie. He claims Raja had found it difficult to live with his wife on a \u00a3200 a-month state pension.<\/p>\n


\nIbrahim stated to the court, \u201cThis was his first offence and he is previously of good character. He is sorry and, through the embarrassment this has caused to his family, friends and community, it is a lesson learnt.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nMagistrate Anne Knight however countered, \u201cThis is a very serious matter, with aggravating features. You were fraudulent from the outset and The fraud continued for a length of time, over two-and-a-half years.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nRaja was given a 10-week prison sentence for each of the offenses, all to occur jointly, but suspended for two years. He was also ordered to pay costs and an \u00a380 victim surcharge. \n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pensioner has been jailed for falsely claiming \u00a313,000 worth of benefits 72-year-old Ghulam Mohi Ud Din Raja told officials at Leicester City Council he only lived with his wife and rented his property from a private landlord, he in fact was living with three of his adult children and son-in-law, all of whom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}