Three benefit cheats have been ordered to pay a total of £1,245 in fines and court costs after pleading guilty to claiming more than £10,000 they were not entitled to.
Gordon Anderson, Jeffrey James and Victoria Lane appeared at Banbury Magistrates’ Court on Friday, November 25. The court heard that Anderson, 51, of Germander Way, Bicester, failed to tell Cherwell District Council he had returned to work after a period of unemployment.
He was fined £300, ordered to pay £250 court costs and has already paid back the £2,983 he had fraudulently claimed. Magistrates also heard that James, 42, of Chamberlain Place, Kidlington, had swindled the taxpayer out of £4,919.42 in housing and council tax benefit.
He had failed to declare student income to the council with the Audit Commission’s National Fraud Initiative revealing that he had used a friend’s address in Southmoor, near Abingdon, for his student loan application. He was fined £100, ordered to pay £70 court costs and must pay back the money he defrauded.
Lane, 30, of Winchelsea Close, Banbury, did not inform the council of pay increases over two years that meant she received £2,587.78 in housing and council tax benefits she was not entitled to. She was fined £230, ordered to pay £250 court costs and is paying back the over-claim. All three now have criminal records.
Cherwell’s deputy leader, Councillor George Reynolds, said: “We are catching more and more benefit thieves thanks to our co-operation with other agencies. Anyone else out there who is making fraudulent claims should be getting very worried about when we will knock on their door. Their best bet is to come forward and admit what they’ve done, things will go better for them in the long run.”
