Caught for Fraud and arrested yesterday

[debbieb1980]

No excuses as I was caught red handed doing something I really should not have been doing.

I have been wrongly claiming whilst working due to a lot of money issues and now need to face the consequences of my actions.

My recent past caught up with me late yesterday evening when I was arrested at my workplace just before finishing my shift, I then had to go to the police station and have been in there til an hour or so ago.

Scared I will now end up in prison though if I do I know it is self inflicted, looking for any advice.

I know somebody who was shopped for claiming dla when her circumstances had changed.
She had claimed 7k extra over a number of years. She was caught and pictured riding her horse, which her disability should have prevented.
She got 200 hours community service, pay back the £7k and was also put under a curfew, I presume to make it difficult for her to tend her horses.

OP, I hope for your dd's sake you don't get sent down and that life isn't too hard going forward.

That would make sense Fleur, tbh I hadn’t considered a cash in hand situ. In which case I guess it would be easier to deceive.

And hmrc may be interested in the company for ni and income tax evasion if they are paying cash in hand.

They are likely to have all the income details however as they’ve already put it to her and she denied it they’ll need to be sure the income and job matches the person they suspect working hence the photos.

Weezol good luck! Unfortunately it’s the fraudulent claims which negatively impact the genuine.

Did they really need to do all he sneaking around?

Bunch of sneaky fuckers them there police.

Forever sneaking around catching criminals when they could be just ignoring blatant criminal activity and concentrating on eating donuts.

Don't know who they think they are.

So you committed fraud for four years, denied it once at interview and are now only worrying as you've been finally caught.

I hope the sentence is harsh as it's not excusable despite people saying it is.

Okay this is a Trillion times easier said than done, but try not to panic. Youre not the first and nor will you be the last to be caught committing benefit fraud.
Now,I'm not going to give you false hope and say "You definitely won't go to jail. However i can promise it's highly unlikely. I could be wildly wrong but I'm.sure they only send you to jail if it's in excess of 20k fraud. If you do get a sentence. It'll probably be suspended.
You'll certainly have to pay the money back though. Theres no question or two ways about that.
To parrot what pps have said. You definitely need to get a solicitor.

Yellow you are an idiot.It is hardly the same as Google etc and mps so get a fecking grip.

Shelley clearly you ignored the rest of my post, and you’ve made yourself look very stupid by taking that sentence out of context, so congrats.

Well, that kinda was the jist of your post!

Was it? I mentioned the ‘sneaking’ because I had previously assumed instead of ‘sneaking’, they could have just checked her earnings against her NI number, then some posters mentioned cash in hand.

Or can’t you read?

Also If we have dirty paedos getting suspended sentences. I highly doubt they'll send someone to prison over benefit fraud.
Mind you in this loony world. I wouldn't be too sure.

theshania I can read perfectly well but I think it’s fairly obvious to everyone apart from you that the police plus dwp will be more investigation than just checking she is paying ni against her earnings.

You could just admit you were being naive about investigations that you know nothing about?

Hiding the thread now, don’t need to fight with the Easter holiday drama intake. Have a nice evening!

Who is being a goody twat? Because people have explained to that there is more investigation than just assuming she is paying tax and ni?

I don’t need to scream into a pillow at all, what makes you think any of us are that irate?

Strange.

Why are people fighting. The ops fucked up, fraudulently claimed when they should not have. People like the op are the reason people rightfully on benefits get judged.

I couldn't give a flying fuck what excuses there are and hope the op gets the full weight of the law chucked on them. Disgusting behaviour and an poor excuse of a role model. No sympathy at all for jezza kyle candidates like this.

VQ what a lovely, open and kind response . I am glad things have worked out so well for you
OP this is huge for you now but you are learning from it and one day in the future it won’t seem quite as bad. Stay strong.

How did you get on with solicitors op?

Personally, I don't think you'll get a jail term, I really hope you don't. I can see how volunteering the information, to stop that money, when you're in deep financial shit, could be hard, so I sympathise.

I don't blame op either. People don't what they have to to survive. Obviously if it were done so that she could go on a 3 month cruise then that'd be very different.

Do people realise you don't have to be on £25k to not be entitled to benefits? OP could be on NMW (or less if the employer was in on it), working P/T and claiming housing benefit etc, getting enough to survive on but little extra.

Benefits, on most cases, are not enough to survive on.

I hope it went well at the solicitors OP.

I don't blame op either. People don't what they have to to survive

So defrauding £12500 is ok then if it's done for the right reasons. As for not blaming the OP I don't know anyone could condone what she's done

Neither do I redglitter. There's no remorse either, just scared about prison.

Millions of people have money issues at points but don't resort to theft.

I wonder if those who feel it's ok would let somebody steal that much from them and say the same?

If benefits were set at a livable level, there'd be less fraud. As it, they're not. How anyone survives on unemployment or disability benefit long term is beyond me.

Until benefits reflect the actual amount needed to live, I won't be judging anyone who tries to eek out enough to get by. OP hasn't said how long this has been going on, or which benefits. It's very possible she continued to claim JSA and housing benefit while working PT and would've been entitled to some/most of the £12,500 in in work benefits, had she declared it.

People are posting as if she's been living the high-life on the taxpayer when it's very unlikely she had much left at all after bills, food etc, even with the fraud.

@Frequency

She said she's been doing it since 2014. So that's only an overclaim of about £3000 a year.
My guess is, she continued to claim as an unemployed single parent when she was employed and would have been entitled to some of the benefit, just not all of it. So the extra £12500 overpayment is the problem. If she's declared her job, she would have still received the part of payment they are not going after her for. That's just what I've concluded from her posts though so might be wrong.

Side note - disability benefit should equal the national average wage; we should have a duty to take care of people who genuinely cannot work and they should have a decent standard of living. But unemployment benefit should be the bare minimum. Single parents with kids under school age get extra, but it is not societies job to take care of people who don't work and have no excuse. We can't afford that. It's not a lifestyle - it's a safety net and no one should be living on it long term if their kids are of school age.