At Huntingdon Magistrates on 21 December 2006, a Huntingdon man was sentenced to six months imprisonment for each of three charges of benefit fraud. The sentence was suspended for two years and he was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to Huntingdonshire District Council.

At a trial on 1 December 2006 Scott Du Cane Chamberlain (30) of Lucas Court, Huntingdon was found guilty of the three charges.

Veronica Candy, prosecuting for Huntingdonshire District Council told the court that Chamberlain claimed housing and council tax benefit between September 2002 and July 2005 as he was unemployed but he failed to declare that he was joint owner of a house in Eaton Socon.

At the trial the court heard that Chamberlain and his wife had applied to the district council for housing in 2002 claiming they had been made homeless. When they were re-housed at Lucas Court the couple claimed benefit as both were out of work.  On three claims for benefit Chamberlain had ticked ‘no’ to questions about ownership of any other property.

During a routine visit it was found that Chamberlain was the joint owner of a three bedroom house in Eaton Socon.  Further enquiries revealed that he had jointly owned a property with another family member since 1995 and that his property had been let to tenants at various times.

Mrs Candy told the court that due to his failure to report his ownership of the property he had been overpaid housing benefit and council tax benefit totalling £11,339.14.

In his defence Chamberlain said that he had been informed by a council official that he did not have to report his ownership of the property on either his application for housing or his applications for benefit as it would not affect either.  He also said that he believed that he had legally signed the property over to his father in 1997 to manage and keep and did not consider that he had an interest in the property after that had happened.

On considering the facts of the case and hearing from several witnesses for both the prosecution and defence the magistrates found Chamberlain guilty of all three charges and asked for the matter to be adjourned to 21 December 2006 for preparation of reports to include the possibility of custody. 

At the hearing on 21 December, Elaine Havord, for Chamberlain, told the court that although her client still believed himself to innocent of any deliberate wrong doing he accepted that he had been found guilty and was prepared to accept that he would now have to suffer the consequences. Mrs Havord said that following Probation Service reports she knew that due to his disability the court was limited in their options for sentence but asked them not to consider prison as he was a young man of previous good character with a wife and young children to support.

In addition to the suspended sentences, the court ordered Chamberlain to undertake 18 months supervision with the Probation Service including 30 days of supervised activity. He was also directed to make arrangements to repay the balance of the benefits he had falsely claimed to the council as soon as possible.

If you know someone who is claiming benefit when they are not entitled to it you can contact the Fraud Investigation Team on 01480 388480 or call the 24 hour  confidential Fraud Hot Line on 01480 388188.  When calling either number please leave as much information as possible to ensure that the council is aware of the full facts before an investigation commences.  All calls received will be dealt with.