On Wednesday 28 February 2007, Huntingdon Magistrates dealt with two cases of benefit fraud following investigations conducted by Huntingdonshire District Council’s fraud team and investigators from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Nicole Marquer of Luddington Close, Great Paxton pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to report to the council and DWP that she had started work.

Veronica Candy, prosecuting for the council and DWP said that Marquer had claimed benefit legitimately some years previously as an unemployed single parent. In late 2005 a data matching exercise conducted by the DWP revealed that she had been working for some time. Checks conducted with Marquer’s employer showed that she had been employed since 23 February 2005. Once her claims for housing and council tax benefit and income support had been amended she was found to have been overpaid £7,991.77.  Ms Candy made an application for compensation to be paid to the council as Marquer had failed to repay any of the benefit she has to pay back.

Frank Squires for Marquer told the court that following the death of father she had taken on work to help her mother pay debts which had been incurred.  He also said that Marquer had had  relationship problems which had left her with psychological issues which she had only recently started to address.  Accepting Marquer’s guilty pleas the magistrates adjourned the case to 21 March 2007 for pre-sentence reports.

The second case concerned Mark O’Callaghan of St Clements Passage, Huntingdon.  O’Callaghan pleaded guilty to one charge of benefit fraud.  The court heard that he had claimed housing benefit and council tax benefit in November 2004 whilst unemployed but failed to report that he had returned to work in March 2005.

This was discovered during a routine visit to O’Callaghan’s address. As a result he was overpaid £504.74. The court was told that the council had tried to resolve this matter without the need for criminal proceedings but O’Callaghan had chosen not to cooperate, although the benefits overpaid had been recovered by the council.  He was fined £200 and ordered to pay a £200 contribution towards the council’s costs.

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.