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Man gets jail time for £9.8k benefits fraud

A 61-year-old man has appeared in court charged with fraudulently claiming nearly £10,000 in benefits he was not entitled to.

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Kenneth Bailey appeared via videolink from Channings Wood prison at Wolverhampton Magistrates court on Friday charged with three counts of failing to notify the Department of Work and Pensions of his change in circumstances and one count of dishonesty for making a false statement in order to obtain benefits.

Bailey, who is already serving time behind bars for drug offences on a sentence that will not end until 2018, was given an 18-week custodial sentence to run concurrently to the one he is currently serving.

The court heard how Bailey claimed a total of £9,830.68 in benefits in 2012, for which he was not entitled.

Initially, Mr Bailey was claiming the benefits correctly in 2012, but continued to claim them despite a change in his circumstances in which became employed.

Speaking at court, magistrate Stephen Russell said: "We have heard you have pleaded guilty to these four offences which have cost the tax payer over £9,000.

"For these four offences, the sentence would have been 26 weeks in prison, reduced on the basis of your early guilty plea to 18 weeks which will run concurrently to your existing sentence.

"There will be no financial implications to this – the local authority will seek to make whatever arrangements they need to get the money back. There will be no costs due to the prosecution nor a victim surcharge to be paid."

The news follows the recent prosecution of a couple who claimed £64,000 in disability benefits caught running their florist business with ease.

Arthur McCarroll claimed that it took him as long as four minutes to walk just three metres, while his wife Susan claimed she needed help getting in and out of chairs and couldn't even cook a meal.

But footage obtained by Department of Work and Pensions investigators showed the pair comfortably carrying hanging baskets filled with soil and flowers and loading heavy boxes into a car.

And Susan, 65, was also a regular trader at car boot sales, despite her fraudulent claims.

The pair, from Larch Road, in Kingswinford, both pleaded guilty to fraud when they appeared at Dudley Magistrates court in March this year.

Arthur was sentenced to 36 weeks in prison suspended for two years.

She was handed a 26-week sentence also suspended for two years.

Each were given a six-week curfew from 7pm-7am.

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