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EnergyDeal or No Deal winner accused of benefit fraud
Filed under: Scams & Fraud
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David Ebener
We don't know the truth in this particular case. However, we have discovered some stories from the archives of winners who turned into benefits sinners.
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The case
Banana won the cash in November 2011. She would have had to tell the DWP about the win, and her benefits would have been stopped. The allegation, in the Daily Telegraph, is that she failed to do so, and continued to receive the cash.According to The Sun newspaper, Banana will appear at North Staffordshire Justice Centre on February 20.
There's nothing to say that Banana is guilty of anything; we will have to wait for the hearing to discover what actually happened.
Sinners
In the interim, there are plenty of tales of people who seemed to have luck on their side, but who came unstuck with benefits.Last August, 53-year-old John Anderson from Dundee was jailed after failing to come clean about a £100,000 scratchcard win, and continuing to claim £6,000 in benefits. He managed to squander the lot before he was jailed.
And he's not the only lottery winner to come a-cropper. In October we heard of Lawrence Candlish, aged 38, who won £5 million on the lottery, but after blowing the cash he turned to benefits fraud - claiming disability benefits and not revealing he had moved to Spain.
Another lottery-winning fraudster was Edward Putman, 46, who won £5 million on the lottery and continued to claim benefits without admitting to the windfall. He admitted to benefits fraud last July and was jailed for nine months.
That same month TV presenter Dan Penteado, who made a living showing fraudsters up on 'Rogue Traders', was found guilty of over £20,000 in benefit fraud, after he failed to disclose money in a bank account on official forms.
HMRC's biggest tax cheats of 2012
- Mohammed Shabir Karim and Kamran Bhatti<p> Jailed for evading over £4.5 million in VAT due on platinum trading.</p>
- Imran Bhatti and Raymond Bowden<p> Jailed for evading over £4.5 million in VAT due on platinum trading.</p>
- Operation Hazel Lamp<p> A gang which described over 20 million smuggled cigarettes on shipping documents as babies’ toys was jailed after a covert surveillance operation.</p> <p> Sentenced in 2012: Phillip William Robinson, Vincent Waller, Phillip William Hall, Christopher John Burns and Andrius Kochanauskas – 13 years 1 month</p>
- Operation Hazel Lamp<p> A gang which described over 20 million smuggled cigarettes on shipping documents as babies’ toys was jailed after a covert surveillance operation.</p> <p> Sentencing: Paul O’Meara, Robert Doran, Patrick Gray, Martin Cleland, Mark Sadgrove, Wayne Stock and Matthew Neale – 24 years 6 months</p>
- Operation Hazel Lamp<p> A gang which described over 20 million smuggled cigarettes on shipping documents as babies’ toys was jailed after a covert surveillance operation.</p> <p> Sentencing: Paul O’Meara, Robert Doran, Patrick Gray, Martin Cleland, Mark Sadgrove, Wayne Stock and Matthew Neale – 24 years 6 months</p>
- Vincent Walker and Phillip Robinson<p> Part of a criminal gang which set up a factory capable of making up to 625 million counterfeit cigarettes and five million pouches of fake hand rolling tobacco a year.</p>
- Christopher John Burns and Andrius Kochanauskas<p> Part of a criminal gang which set up a factory capable of making up to 625 million counterfeit cigarettes and five million pouches of fake hand rolling tobacco a year.</p>
- Phillip Hall<p> Part of a criminal gang which set up a factory capable of making up to 625 million counterfeit cigarettes and five million pouches of fake hand rolling tobacco a year.</p>
- Operation Tulipbox<p> The gang set up a chain of bogus companies to trade fraudulently in EU emissions allowances.</p> <p> Sentenced in 2012: Sandeep Singh Dosanjh, Navdeep Singh Gill and Ranjot Singh Chahal – 35 years</p>
- Navdeep Singh Gill<p> The gang set up a chain of bogus companies to trade fraudulently in EU emissions allowances.</p> <p> Sentenced in 2012: Sandeep Singh Dosanjh, Navdeep Singh Gill and Ranjot Singh Chahal – 35 years</p>
- Roy Faichney<p> Roy Faichney, Managing Director of Vantis Tax Ltd, was sentenced to four years for his part in a fraudulent tax avoidance scheme which left charities and Exchequer out of pocket.</p>
- Operation Inertia<p> The gang claimed to have sold four million mobile phones worth £1.7 billion. However, in many cases the phones did not exist. In an attempt to make the trade appear legitimate, over 5,700 fake business transactions were created to claim large amounts of VAT.</p> <p> Sentenced in 2012: Lee Sellers, Mehmood Khan Nazir, Umar Khan Nazir and Marshall Boston – 10 years 6 months</p>
- Mehmood Khan Nazir<p> The gang claimed to have sold four million mobile phones worth £1.7 billion. However, in many cases the phones did not exist. In an attempt to make the trade appear legitimate, over 5,700 fake business transactions were created to claim large amounts of VAT.</p> <p> Sentenced in 2012: Lee Sellers, Mehmood Khan Nazir, Umar Khan Nazir and Marshall Boston – 10 years 6 months</p> <p> HMRC</p>
- Umar Khan Nazir<p> The gang claimed to have sold four million mobile phones worth £1.7 billion. However, in many cases the phones did not exist. In an attempt to make the trade appear legitimate, over 5,700 fake business transactions were created to claim large amounts of VAT.</p> <p> Sentenced in 2012: Lee Sellers, Mehmood Khan Nazir, Umar Khan Nazir and Marshall Boston – 10 years 6 monthsgang claimed to have sold four million mobile phones worth £1.7 billion. However, in many cases the phones did not exist. In an attempt to make the trade appear legitimate, over 5,700 fake business transactions were created to claim large amounts of VAT.</p> <p> Sentenced in 2012: Lee Sellers, Mehmood Khan Nazir, Umar Khan Nazir and Marshall Boston – 10 years 6 monthse gang claimed to have sold four million mobile phones worth £1.7 billion. However, in many cases the phones did not exist. In an attempt to make the trade appear legitimate, over 5,700 fake business transactions were created to claim large amounts of VAT.</p> <p> Sentenced in 2012: Lee Sellers, Mehmood Khan Nazir, Umar Khan Nazir and Marshall Boston – 10 years 6 months</p> <p> </p> <p> Sentenced in 2012: Lee Sellers, Mehmood Khan Nazir, Umar Khan Nazir and Marshall Boston – 10 years 6 months</p>
- Operation Rust<p> A criminal gang has been jailed for one of the biggest ever alcohol smuggling frauds ever uncovered in the UK. The scam was worth £50m a year in unpaid duty and VAT.</p> <p> </p> <p> Sentenced in 2012: Kevin Ramon Burrage, Gary Dennis Clarke, Michael Brian Turner and Davinder Singh Dhaliwal – 21 years 3 months</p>
- Operation Rust<p> A criminal gang has been jailed for one of the biggest ever alcohol smuggling frauds ever uncovered in the UK. The scam was worth £50m a year in unpaid duty and VAT.</p> <p> </p> <p> Sentenced in 2012: Kevin Ramon Burrage, Gary Dennis Clarke, Michael Brian Turner and Davinder Singh Dhaliwal – 21 years 3 months</p>
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