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#SouthEdition841 (ALICANTE AIRPORT - PUERTO DE MAZARRON)
January Friday, November 27 - Thursday, December 3 2015
PENSIONER’S BENEFIT SHAME by JACK TROUGHTON
PENSIONER VIVIENNE Day has three months to repay the proceeds of her benefit scam or face nine months behind bars. THE 70-YEAR-OLD fraudulently pocketed over £41,000 in benefits over eight years while enjoying retirement in the sun at a Spanish home in Mazarron, Murcia. Day, from Basildon, Essex, falsely claimed housing benefit, council tax benefit, Disability Living Allowance, and Pension Credit and pleaded guilty to three offences of dishonestly making a false statement or representation and failing to notify a change in circumstances contrary to the Social Security Administration Act 1992. As a result, she was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two
years with a six month supervision order. Under a confiscation order she must pay the £41,000 and £4,098 costs within three months or face the jail term. The pensioner not only failed to notify the Department of Work and Pensions that she had moved abroad – she also kept secret the ownership of a Spanish property and her nest egg savings of £127,000. And her fraud was discovered because of the close working relationship between the DWP – which has a team of investigators based in Spain – and the Spanish authorities. DETECT Investigators warn one of the most common forms of benefit fraud among expats is a failure to update their benefit office of a change in circumstances, such as moving abroad – they underlined how such changes and a failure to report them would be detected and pursued. Continued on page 3
Basildon councillor Stuart Sullivan hopes case “deters” others