£27k West Bromwich benefits cheat loses plea over trial

Rashpal Kaur, aged 44, raked in excess housing and council tax benefit over five years after lying about her circumstances to Sandwell Council.

The former benefits office worker, of Europa Avenue, was jailed for 32 months after she was found guilty of 22 offences – including 12 counts of making false statements – at Wolverhampton Crown Court in October.

Top judges at London's Court of Appeal rejected a challenge by Kaur against her convictions, dismissing arguments that the trial judge was wrong to continue her trial after she missed its final stages due to "anxiety and depression".

Lord Justice Treacy said Kaur failed to declare she was no longer a single parent, and that she was related to her landlord, when claiming council tax and housing benefit between 2003 and 2007, pocketing £27,281 in excess payments.

More than £270,000 had also moved through her bank account during this period, giving rise to three convictions for converting criminal property, the appeal judge added. She was also convicted of four counts of failing to declare a change in circumstances and two of producing false documents. The jury also found her guilty of perverting the course of justice over phoney allegations concocted against a witness at her trial.

On jailing her, the trial judge described Kaur's "professional" scam as the "most comprehensive case of benefit fraud" he had ever come across.

Kaur's barrister, Mr Philip Brunt, argued that the trial judge erred in refusing to dismiss the jury and order a retrial when she failed to appear in court to complete her evidence in April last year due to health problems. But Lord Justice Treacy, sitting with Mr Justice Saunders and Judge John Milford QC, said she had suffered no prejudice by the case proceeding in her absence.

The judge also dismissed an appeal against Kaur's sentence.