A pensioner from Berrow has been jailed following an investigation into an £11,000 benefit fraud.
The 74 year-old man was found guilty by a jury at Taunton Crown Court, having pleaded not guilty to offences relating to undeclared earnings within the holiday industry.
The case was brought jointly by the Department for Work and Pensions’ Fraud Investigation Service and Sedgemoor District Council after an investigation found the man had worked on a seasonal basis over three years whilst claiming Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.
The overpaid benefit amounted to nearly £11,000 and the offender has been sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.
“Sedgemoor District Council works with a whole host of different sources to continue to fight benefit fraud, which costs £1.5 billion nationally,” council spokeswoman Claire Faun told Burnham-On-Sea.com this week.
“Information comes in to the council in various ways; including calls from the general public, data matching exercises, council staff, the police and the Department for Work and Pensions. Investigators make sure that allegations are followed up as appropriate.”
