Brent woman pleads guilty to over £68k benefit fraud

NW10 resident, Rita Boateng, was given a suspended 12 month prison sentence at Harrow Crown Court on 22 January 2010, after pleading guilty to fraudulently receiving income support and housing and council tax benefit totalling £68,676.60.

The fraud was uncovered by Brent Council's Audit and Investigation unit after a data matching exercise showed that rather than being a single, unemployed mother, as she had claimed, Ms Boateng had been employed since October 1991.

Ms Boateng originally applied for income support from Jobcentreplus in March 1990. She later submitted claims for benefits from Brent Council and was awarded housing and council tax benefit from December 1998.

As a result of a data matching exercise Ms Boateng's claim was brought to the attention of investigators who discovered that she had in fact been in full time employment since at least October 1991. She was initially employed as a Support Manager with Transport for London and then transferred to Tubelines Ltd in 2004. She was earning over £25,000 per year (salary as at 2004/5) and received over £20,000 in 2005 after volunteering for redundancy.

She failed to advise the Jobcentreplus or Brent Council about any of these changes in her circumstances continuing to claim benefit as a single, unemployed mother.

When initially interviewed about this matter in 2006, Ms Boateng denied any employment. When challenged she refused to answer any questions and failed to co-operate any further with investigators.  

When the matter was brought in front of the courts, Ms Boateng pleaded guilty to six charges of benefit fraud. Two charges of income support fraud contrary to s15A Theft Act 1968 and four charges of housing benefit and council tax benefit contrary to s111A Social Security Administration Act 1992.

After pleading guilty, Ms Boateng was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work in the community. In addition she was ordered to pay £75 towards legal costs.

The total overpayment of income support and housing benefit and council tax benefit was £68,676.60 during the period December 1998 to March 2007.

Brent Council Deputy Leader, Cllr Bob Blackman, Lead Member for Resources, said:
"Once again the hard work of council investigators has paid off with the conviction of a benefit fraudster. We will always go after people who are defrauding not only the council but local residents out of money which could be spent on other public services."

In passing sentence the judge indicated that under normal circumstances a custodial sentence would have been considered however in this instance she was using her discretion as sending Ms Boateng to prison would mean her losing her job and lose the means to repay her debt.

Financial investigators are still pursuing Ms Boateng with a view to confiscating gains made by her from her criminal activity. To date she has repaid over £4000 of housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support.

Source: Brent Council

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