Could I be charged with fraud?

[BiscoffCheesecakes]

My dad died a few years ago & he left his estate to me & my brother. My db asked me to look after his share of money. At the time he told me it was because he wasn't very responsible with money & I knew more about where to invest etc. So I've had all the money in my name in various accounts & just transferred him money if he needed it for holidays etc.

I'm not particularly close to him & didn't know much about his work situation. He's always been a bit cagey about it so i don't ask. I now know he is on benefits & after seeing a post on here recently, I realised he wanted me to look after his money so he could carry on receiving benefits.

If there are investigations in the future could I just say that I wasn't aware of his benefit situation? Or will I or he be charged with fraud?

I'm not stupid

This situation would suggest otherwise..

But from what you've posted, it is happening?

It was very clear.

Why? I held on to the money at his request not knowing his situation. Now I do. I was asking for advice. There is a lot of conflicting advice on here

Your brother is on benefits. You know that means he would become ineligible if he suddenly had £80k in his account.

Pretty much the only conflicting advice on here is from people trying to justify why they've done the same/similar things.

Your behaviour is either stupid or fraudulent. I'd grab onto the stupid label if I were you.

DWP can certainly claim your brother has deliberately hidden assets and cease his benefits. Whether they bother to chase you as accessory to his fraud is less clearcut. Have you sent “his” money over now? It would look better if you appear to have acted as soon as you realised.

But I only just found this out and my question was whether I could be in trouble

You seem to think that ‘not knowing’ is a defence.
As soon as he asked you to ‘look after’ money he’d inherited, it was your responsibility to question why he’d do that. You admit that you didn’t ask him about work/ earnings/whether he was claiming benefits. You admit that he’s always been ‘cagey’ (your words) about these things. There were very clearly a million red flags …. Yet you chose to keep money that was legally is in an account which didn’t identify it as his. It absolutely 100% looks like you have colluded with hiding this money. The fact that your brother was ‘cagey’ and not someone you’re close to should have been reasons to say ‘nope, no way am I going to get involved in your finances.’

as a pp said, the majority of clear thinking people on here are telling you to address this issue now. There’s no guarantee you’re in the clear but better to try to come clean than continue burying your head in the sand. The only people who’ve tried to defend you on here either have no clue about the legalities of the situation or are trying to justify benefit fraud because they or their mates have tried to do something similar

You said earlier in the thread that he'd spent about 60% of it - in 4 years.

That means you've shovelled £48000 at him over that time. The DWP would be very interested in this.

Yes you could be in theory. Presumably you could have asked dbro why he did not want it in his account and known he was claiming means tested benefits. Whether it is in public interest to pursue you is another matter. Probably depends on amount of overpayment and any past history.

Not knowing isn’t a legal defence.

Especially when you consider how bizarre it is to have a sibling that you claim you don’t know well enough to even know if he’s working ask you to keep 80k in your name for him. Why would he do that? Why would you?

You could be in trouble. What trouble you could be in would likely be somewhat mitigated by what you do now that you do know.

How did you suddenly find out?

I’m curious OP - are you in a position to pay back what he hasn’t taken ? Because if you are it should be done immediately

You’ve had advice from a fraud prosecutor. That’s the only advice you need to listen too. You are currently in a conspiracy to defraud DWP.

@BiscoffCheesecakesif you want platitudes - people saying “there, there, it wasn’t your fault, you haven’t done anything wrong” then you’ll definitely find them on here. But they’ll be from people who have no clue about the legal situation. Or they think #bekind trumps everything else and find it easier to dish out platitudes rather than be honest. Or they could be from people who do know you’re in the wrong but prefer to turn a blind eye and condone fraud, possibly because they’ve done similar.

None of these responses will actually help you though. Listen to the sensible advice you’ve been given. You’ve put yourself in an extremely dodgy position. Goodness knows why you ever put your brother’s 80k into an account without his name on which you have control over, when by your own admission he’s ‘cagey’ and you had no idea of his financial /earnings/ benefits situation. The best thing you can do now is come clean. There is no guarantee you’ll be in the clear but it will certainly mean your brother quite rightly has to repay the money he defrauded.

The question is whether the DWP is likely to believe that. People make genuine mistakes with benefits all the time, sometimes they’re believed and sometimes they’re not. DWP tends to take a hard line and not give people benefit of the doubt.

As I said yesterday, the fact that you’ve been feeding him money over the time significantly increases your involvement in this. And decreases the likelihood that you didn’t know of his financial affairs as you have been in touch.

The other aspect is whether not asking questions about money is defensible in this day and age.

As pps said you really need to talk to lawyer.

The safest thing for your bro to do (not saying he will likely agree) would be to get himself a specialist benefits lawyer, declare his overpayment as a “mistake” and use the remainder of his legacy to pay back his benefits. Generally the DWP just want their money back so if he voluntarily comes forward and pays it all back he might be able to wing it.

If leaves it for them to figure out for themselves - he could find himself in serious trouble. And so could you. You need to protect yourself OP.

I think people are winding you up for drama. Nothing can be proved. I honestly wouldn’t worry, there is far far worse going on. I personally know of 2 people who milk the system in a much worse way than your brother and nothings ever been investigated despite tip offs

Bingo!

Nothing can be proved? The Op transferred all 160k from the estate into her own accounts despite only being entitled to half of it and has been transferring it to her brother in dibs and drabs over years…

It’s very clear that she has been assisting him in committing benefit fraud.

The OP would be relying on the DWP believing that she genuinely thought that was a normal thing to do and not question to have no issues.

There is definitely a paper trail which would be easy to follow and very difficult to defend.

As the money was in OP's name, she has been gifting her brother which means the cash he received will be subject to IHT on OP's estate.

What a mess.

Complete nonsense. The money has not been gifted until it’s been gifted. It was left in the will to the mother and has been left in the mother’s account.
I can tell my kids I will give them money but then not give them money. It doesn’t make it their money.

I do not have money. My mum gave my sisters £10000 and instead of money she is buying me things when I need them. I can not ask her for money. She will not give it to me.
I was worried and asked her about it today.

Do UC really know the moment your bank account goes over 6k?