Nine months in jail for benefit fraudster
by Hammersmith and Fulham Press Office
17/06/2008
A woman who was so financially secure that she bought a home with a deposit of £27,000 will spend the next nine months in prison after being found guilty of four counts of benefit fraud.
Described as ‘financially sophisticated’, 52 year-old Fatima Yousfi fraudulently claimed over £21,000 in council tax benefit and housing benefit from H&F despite working as a highly-paid financial controller for a major retailer.
She also failed to declare to the council that she held savings in excess of the £16,000 capital limit for claiming benefit.
Sentencing her at Blackfriars Crown Court, earlier this week, Judge Recorder Mr Pearse-Wheatley, said: “While other people are confused by the benefit system you are financially sophisticated and this was fraud from the outset.
“There is no doubt in my mind that this sort of offence crosses the custody threshold. This offence was committed by you not out of necessity but to fund a particular lifestyle.”
Yousfi, of Charleville Road, West Kensington, started claiming benefit in April 2002, less than a year before she commenced employment.
In July 2004 she purchased a property for £181,000 in the Lewisham area. The deposit towards her property was funded from her savings that increased substantially while she was working and claiming.
Cllr Greg Smith, Cabinet Member for Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour, said: “Benefit fraud will simply not be tolerated in Hammersmith & Fulham. I am appalled that this woman had the downright temerity to claim such a vast amount of money from the taxpayers purse while leading such a lavish lifestyle.
“Our corporate anti fraud service work round the clock to catch benefit cheats and the message to anyone who is considering acting in such an unscrupulous fashion is that you will be caught and you will pay the penalty.”
Yousfi has already paid back £4,700 and has been ordered to pay back the outstanding overpayment within the next 12 months. Judge Recorder Mr Pearse-Wheatley stated that he was aware that Ms Yousfi will have no income whilst servicing a prison sentence and expected that she will have to sell her property to pay the money back to the council.
