Two men appear in court after racial abuse
Sprowston man jailed for benefits fraud
Peter Walsh
Saturday, July 23, 2011
5:35 PM
A man who fraudulently claimed more than £66,000 in benefits has been jailed.
Roger Walker, 61, from Wilks Farm Drive, off Barkers Lane, Sprowston, appeared at Norwich Crown Court yesterday having previously pleaded guilty to 14 counts of benefit fraud.
David Hewitt, prosecuting, said the fraud related to Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) and housing and council tax benefit, which was claimed as a result of him failing to give notice of circumstances, namely that he was married and he and his wife worked, took place between 1999 and 2009.
He said: “The defendant claimed for and was in receipt of JSA together with housing and council tax benefit and, having made the claims, failed to disclose that he received a lump sum pension together with a monthly pension thereafter and failed to disclose material facts that he was married, and worked and that his wife worked.”
Mr Hewitt said Walker, who worked in a number of jobs from 2002, including as a delivery driver for Evening News publisher Archant, had dishonestly claimed a total of £66,200 by way of JSA and housing and council tax benefit.
He added Hewitt, who was arrested in April last year, has so far repaid a total of £120.
Michael Clare, mitigating, said he was a man of previous “good character” and asked for discount for that. He said: “The defendant knows the likely outcome is immediate custody and has been doing his best to steel himself or that. He’s not in the best of health.”
Mr Clare, who revealed his Ukranian wife had married him to achieve citizenship of the UK and had since “decamped”, added: “He hasn’t come bleating to me saying I can’t go to prison because I have this. It’s not that sort of thing. He’s here and he’s steeling himself to face the music.”
Walker was jailed for eight months and will serve half of his sentence.
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6 comments
This man was really repentant. Since April of last year he managed to repay just £120, less than £10 per month! No matter how tight his circumstances are surely he could have repaid more than that. Now he is going to prison for just 4 months!! Since it appears to have been a marrige of convenience I wonder if he got paid for that too?
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Norwich lad
Sunday, July 24, 2011
i had the housing officer round my house threatening me with house repossesion or prison because i owed 41 pound water rates, which i have now paid , tsk tsk
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morello
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Not bad £66 000 for 4 month in prison
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docan
Saturday, July 23, 2011
How the hell can this happen in this day and age...and to that absurd amount of money....sadly we see it all too often.Surely the right hand should know what the left hand is doing regarding the award of hard earnt tax payers money.Surely in our computerised big brother society,this fraud didn`t need to be anywhere near as big as it ended up ......lose lose lose taxpayer(again)
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NR1`EY
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Why is he only serving half of his eight month sentence? He knowingly defrauded the taxpayers over a period of 10 years....nice to know the deduction side of my payslip was funding him, his lifestyle and his sham marriage!! Good old British justice system.
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janeyw
Saturday, July 23, 2011
One of Archants valued employees.
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John L Norton
Saturday, July 23, 2011