twistedmelon

Well that's two saddo's because I saw it too.
It seems to me that there is some dramatic difference in the law or legislation that makes benefit fraud somehow different to any other fraud or crime of theft and therein there is no real deterent to the crime.
It took 3 years for the council (not the police) to make a case against this woman and as you say at a cost higher than the theft.
What's that all about? Clearly there is something going on that we are not aware of when it comes to benefit fraud.
So how is it that MP's get a smack on the wrist for fraud yet a shop lifter gets a criminal record

EsuriJohn

I am NOT a benefit cheat.

twistedmelon

I am a benefit cheat. I benefit from paying less to all the expats working in the black economy

bil

Exactly. In my book, even if the two crimes were rated as equal, it is worse because the MP was in a position of trust.

whitelinen

Maybe there are not as many benefit fraudsters as we are led to believe? Maybe it was easier to defraud the system in the past 10 years?

However, as new applicants and existing recipients are to be better scrutinised much of the fraud opportunities of the past will be eradicated.

As for MP´s the first to be sentenced has today been given 18 months inside.
Hardly a slap on the wrist.

JLFS

I think he was expecting a slap on the wrist. What a shock

scampicat

See my comments in blue above.

I agree with your final paragraph. However, some types of theft are more damaging to society than others. I agree it makes none of them right. When we apply a little common sense, we can see that taking a newspaper from a park bench is not as bad as Benefit fraud.

If you are going to refer to bankers and MPs again, be aware that none of what the bankers have done, nor what most of the MPs have done, is illegal. Benefit fraud is.

scampicat

Oh good! Which one was that?

JLFS

David Chaytor, ex labour Mp for Bury.

He was done for supplying fake documents for rental agreements on 2 properties, 1 he already owned outright and the other was owned by his mother.

Diddums.......

JLFS

Too right, it is fine saying theft is theft, but as stated here, common sense has to be brought into play, or we would get ourselves tied up in knots over trivialities.

Lynn R

The horrendous cost of mounting a prosecution against benefit cheats is a serious problem. My last job before leaving the UK was with a regulatory authority and we often had enough evidence to prosecute doctors for, say, supplying slimming drugs illegally, but we had to take into account the costs of prosecution and sadly more often than not it was felt that they could not be justified. Thus people got away scot free with committing crimes, apart from being sent scolding letters - hardly a deterrent.

How do you get around this when restrictions on public spending are set to get even tighter?

angiescarr

Would you like to live in a legal society...or a moral one? Although Mostly these two are the same thing. It's more the case that they should be , but aren't.
For me, it comes down like this. I want to be legal, but I *need* to be moral!

I was taught my values (homilies) from my mother's knee
"to thine own self be true....." etc
and "oh what a tangled web we weave....." etc
A lot of people are never taught these values but rush to judgement on someone who's getting £5 illegal benefit money. But think it's OK to do anything which is not strictly illegal but which most people would regard as immoral... Excessive claims on insurance for example. These are not victimless crimes. Other insurance payers pay!! I lived in Hull through the floods about 3 years ago. Most of the claimants were genuine, But there was a significant proportion who were not or who's builders had them bump up the amount of work done! Water came to just milimetres from our floorboards. We could have claimed. We didn't. Our house had already been damp it was that way when we bought it, and we'd already taken the plaster off the bottom of the walls. Given that most houses down our street were affected and did claim, It would have been legal for me to claim... but immoral. I bet there's a few of the 'judgemental' on here who would have claimed in that circumstance!

scampicat

My mother brought me up with those values too. In fact I can remember her saying that if I want an honest society, then it must start with me myself. I have always remembered this and tried to adhere to it as much as I humanly can. I am the sort of person who will give back the money if someone makes a mistake and gives me change for twenty euros instead of ten. Also by nature I am very much a 'rules' person, I will keep to the rules and in fact one of the reasons I sometimes get frustrated about living in Spain is that no-one seems to know what the rules are.

I agree with your remarks about insurance fraud, in my book this and benefit fraud are equal cases of fraud.

I also agree that legality and morality should be the same but often are not. If it was a choice between the two, then morality is the one to chose.

scampicat

Thanks JL, just seen it on the news. Just deserts!

When are the others being sentenced?

bil

Get real. 18 equals half that for good behaviour, then there will be extra concessions for the religious conversion and the crocodile tears.

I'd see him do 5 years minimum. He was a lying, cheating scumbag in a position of high trust, and he knowingly broke the rules, soft tho they were and open to abuse. Even in those slack reins he couldn't walk straight.

People like him disgust me.