Oap Brother And Sister 'hid £4Million Property Empire To Pocket £130K In Housing Benefit'

[The Masked Tulip]

An elderly brother and sister with a combined property empire of £4million pocketed £130,000 in housing benefit, a court heard yesterday.

Shefali Scholefield, 67, said she was a landlady and Raymond Martin, 72, pretended to be her tenant in the 15-year scam, Blackfriars Crown Court in London was told.

The Indian-born siblings, who are both disabled and are representing themselves at the trial, are accused of having a several valuable properties which they deliberately kept from their local authority.

David Baird, prosecuting, said the pair were living together in a Victorian conversion flat they jointly owned in Holloway, North London, when they began the scam in July 1991.

At that time Scholefield also owned a £3.5million four-bedroomed detached house in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey.

The impressive property stood vacant while Martin successfully applied for housing benefit, claiming he was blind and living alone at the Holloway flat, the court heard.

He also sent pleading letters to the London Borough of Islington whenever his benefit payments did not arrive.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336408/Shefali-Scholefield-Raymond-Martin-hid-4million-fortune-pocket-130k-benefits.html#ixzz17QlO0cre

[leicestersq]

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336408/Shefali-Scholefield-Raymond-Martin-hid-4million-fortune-pocket-130k-benefits.html#ixzz17QlO0cre

Another scam exposed, but just tip of the iceberg stuff.

The more I see of benefits, the more I realise that they are not a scheme to help people in need, but a way for dishonest people to steal off of honest people.

You should never have benefits like this when you have open borders, and no way of effectively distinguishing between those in need and those committing fraud. We have open borders and no way of distinguishing.

Net result, a ballooning deficit and more and more people considering or actually jacking their jobs in to take part in the great benefits fraud.

This isnt just socialism, it is gaming and fraudulent socialism. Just so long as the suckers who are paying this keep focusing on the needs of the children that are being held to emotional ransom by their own parents to force the taxpayer to pay this money, then the fraud will continue.

[Bosh]

Surely you must get to an age where you think enough is enough and cash in. People just will not stop until they have milked every last penny, they get caught or die.

[The Masked Tulip]

On the other side of the coin, I know so many people who when ill have got nothing from the state. I was talking to, of all people, an EA last week who was telling me that this week he will have paid his NI for 50 years... but when he became ill a few years ago he got no benefits because he was self-employed...

It is all about cheating, conning, lying and knowing how to play the system I guess. Sad.

[leicestersq]

On the other side of the coin, I know so many people who when ill have got nothing from the state. I was talking to, of all people, an EA last week who was telling me that this week he will have paid his NI for 50 years... but when he became ill a few years ago he got no benefits because he was self-employed...

It is all about cheating, conning, lying and knowing how to play the system I guess. Sad.

Yes, without a welfare state, that EA wouldnt be able to claim anything. But he also wouldnt have had to pay a shedload in tax to support others.

Mind you, I support an NHS, difficult to fake illness and injury. You can discriminate on that according to need. Pity we dont filter out people who are entitled to it too (UK nationals and legal immigrants and insured visitors only).

[ralphmalph]

Yes, without a welfare state, that EA wouldnt be able to claim anything. But he also wouldnt have had to pay a shedload in tax to support others.

Mind you, I support an NHS, difficult to fake illness and injury. You can discriminate on that according to need. Pity we dont filter out people who are entitled to it too (UK nationals and legal immigrants and insured visitors only).

Unfortunatley in the case of getting benefits it is easy to fake an illness. Under an FoI last week it was announced that 50% of IB claimants were "Self Reffered" i.e they said they were ill without a doctor looking at them and they got benefits.

What a messed up system we have.

[interestrateripoff]

Surely you must get to an age where you think enough is enough and cash in. People just will not stop until they have milked every last penny, they get caught or die.

Just like the billionaires, I mean at what point would you have enough money?

[The Masked Tulip]

Just like the billionaires, I mean at what point would you have enough money?

This is going to be a generalisation... but I have found in life that those who chase money, and hence who are usually ruthless in doing so, are the type of people who usually believe in nothing else other than money and power and what they can get using both.

Such people, I have found, tend not to believe in anything else and have little empathy or regard for 'minor' things like living and dying and all inbetween.

Look at the billionaires in their 70s and 80s still trying to accquire more wealth and power seemingly in a belief that the Grim Reaper will never draw near.

[Georgia O'Keeffe]

Just like the billionaires, I mean at what point would you have enough money?

i´ll be stopping at about 600 billion if thats any help although i might consider taking a breather once i reach 10 quid

[Bosh]

Just like the billionaires, I mean at what point would you have enough money?

I won`t knock anyone earning as much money as they want but these two do not even look like they are really benefiting from this fiddle. I would have thought that the stress of cheating over the years would have been enough to call it a day at some point.

Drug dealers who have been raking hundreds of thousands in over the years are often caught because they attract attention by fiddling the benefit system for that little bit extra.

Pure Greed and stupidity.

[cashinmattress]

I agree with leicestersq.

Tip of the iceberg. Corruption is rampant throughout the last bastions of champagne socialist Britons.

Anybody retiring, living in fully owned property, is going to be savaged by the taxman.

Sitting ducks.

[EmmaRoid]

Brass balls is what you need.

The bigger the con the easier it is to get away with. Just ask Fred the Shred.

[miko]

On the other side of the coin, I know so many people who when ill have got nothing from the state. I was talking to, of all people, an EA last week who was telling me that this week he will have paid his NI for 50 years... but when he became ill a few years ago he got no benefits because he was self-employed...

It is all about cheating, conning, lying and knowing how to play the system I guess. Sad.

Yes

After 30 years paying in the system in P.A.Y.E. I was in hospital and applied for sick pay . They made it very difficult to claim any money , first got a letter sent to my home which my brother bought into the hospital asking me to attend an assesment for work interview , when I phoned and said I was unavaliable due to being in hospital they asked me when would I be ok to attend.

Then they claimed they had lost certificates , funny that as they had one but not the other and they were both sent in the same enverlope.At the other end of the sick period I found it equally as difficult to stop claiming , phoned and said I was fit for work, they still paid, second call told them they were still paying me a month later so they ceased my claim form that day instead of one month earlier , month later I was still receiving money into my bank account phoned for the third time . Sorry was the response someone has not knocked you off the system , they then took me off that day and never asked for any repayment . So in total I got two months extra sick pay.

I think new claimers who have never claimed prior have a hard time claiming what they are entitled too but permenant claimers who know the system get away with murder.

Edited December 7, 2010 by miko

[scrappycocco]

Another lot to add in the top 100 poor rich list with that guy from rbs living off a 200k a year of tax payers money in France.

[neil324]

Well there even defending themselves at the trial, that's telling you something.

If found guilty it's almost guaranteed jail for sure, you would like to give yourself every fighting chance to avoid that surely. I don't think their age will be enough of a mitigating circumstance either given the amount involved and their wealth.

[Democorruptcy]

PUBLIC & PRIVATE SECTOR FAT CATS, BANKERS, TAX AVOIDERS, etc.,

working people on PAYE

PEOPLE MILKING THE SYSTEM

All the bread is on the outside of the sandwich.

[Henrik]

It's a Daily Mail article about dirty foreigners stealing money off the tax payer.

Caution needed when drawing any conclusions from this article IMO.

[longtomsilver]

A few years ago I briefly worked for the benefit fraud office. This type of fraud is rife amongst the Asian community and if they have £4million over here then guaranteed they'll have an equivalent property portfolio back in ***'stan. Afterall who wants to be holed up in te UK during the winter.

[Redcellar]

They will not go to jail, maybe some community service, more likely nothing save paying back the money. Same as the MPs who will also not go to jail. They all should but they won't.

Got to agree sadly. No jail. They will play the old people card and the fact that it is white collar crime will count in their favour too. After all no one got hurt did they

[okaycuckoo]

It's a Daily Mail article about dirty foreigners stealing money off the tax payer.

Caution needed when drawing any conclusions from this article IMO.

It's a court report.

Any distortion and they get called before the judge.

We may not need more of the Daily Mail, but we do need more prosecutions and reporting of prosecutions.