One hundred hours community work for benefit cheat

A Cookham man has been sentenced to 100 hours of community work and ordered to pay compensation for claiming almost £8,000 in housing and council tax benefits and income support while he was in full-time work.

At Maidenhead Magistrates Court on Friday 2 July, Kennedy Adams, 38, of Hamfield Cottages, Lower Road, had pleaded guilty to three offences of failing to notify a change in circumstances to the Royal Borough and the Department for Work and Pensions.

On Friday 23 July, at Slough Magistrates Court, Mr Adams was sentenced to 100 hours of unpaid community work as well as being ordered to pay £250 in costs and £7,031.14 in compensation.

Between 3 October 2008 and 20 April 2009 Mr Adams received £6,267.48 in housing and council tax benefits and £1,417.42 in income support overpayments.

The Royal Borough became aware of the overpayments, which are offences under Section 112 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992, as a result of an anonymous referral advising that Mr Adams had started full-time work while continuing to claim housing and council tax benefit based on income support.

Anthony Kemp, strategic director of resources, said: "Our benefit fraud team is dedicated to recovering the money fraudulently obtained by a dishonest few and will pursue it to the courts if needs be.

"I would strongly advise anyone who has received overpayments to contact us as soon as possible so that the issue can be resolved."

The council's confidential and free Beat the Cheat line for reporting suspected benefit fraud incidents is on 0500 353300.

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