A scheming Black Country schoolteacher has been jailed for a year for swindling almost £45,000 in child tax credits by masquerading as a father-of-eight.
David Graham even claimed some of his ‘children’ had disabilities as part of his scam to cheat the system, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
The court was told it took tax officers three years and almost 200 phonecalls from Graham before “alarm bells sounded”.
The 34-year-old, who arrived in the UK in 2001, received cash for eight youngsters plus additional money for five whom he claimed were disabled. In fact he is a father-of-one.
He now faces deportation to Jamaica after pleading guilty to 12 counts of making fraudulent tax credit claims.
The crook, of Parkfield Road, Goldthorn Hill, Wolverhampton, entered the UK on a visitor visa before being granted a work permit as an English teacher.
He realised he could receive money simply by making a phonecall to Inland Revenue without having to provide evidence about the children, the court heard yesterday.
Prosecutor Scott Coughtrie said Graham had made more than 200 phone calls to the tax credit office from October 2002 to June 2005 before “alarm bells sounded”.
“By the end the defendant was receiving money for eight children, five of whom with varying degrees of disability,” he said. “In actual fact he is a father of one.
“Some of the youngsters he was making claims for were actually the names of his brother’s children living in Jamaica. “Suspicion arose in June 2005 when inquiries by the tax office found the claims were fraudulent.”
Defending Graham, Lee Halliday-Lewis said he had embarked on a “period of madness”.
“There is no justification for my client’s actions,” she said.
“His career as a schoolteacher his now in tatters.”
Jailing Graham, Judge Nicholas Webb told him: “The amount of money you illegally obtained from the public purse was well above the threshold of custody.”
By Steve Wright
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