Benefit cheat escapes jail over £28,000 fraud » Bill payments » 24dash.com

A benefit cheat narrowly escaped a jail sentence after swindling £28,000 from Kensington and Chelsea Council.

Salam Al-Hakim, 51, was given an eight month custodial sentence, suspended for two years by Blackfriars Crown Court. He was also ordered to undertake 80 hours unpaid work and pay court costs of £450.

Al-Hakim, a company secretary for Dawes Video Tel Ltd, at Dawes Road, SW6, secretly withheld details of his business activities and savings in excess of £25,000, in order to deceive the council into paying him £180 per week for his rent. Over a three year period he received in excess of £28,000.

His deception was discovered when fraud investigators from the council’s Corporate Investigation Group made enquiries after suspicions were raised over information supplied in support of his benefit application.

The defendant pleaded guilty to charges of dishonestly obtaining benefit at the hearing on Monday April 28.

In deciding the sentence, His Honour Judge John Hillen took into account the fact that Al-Hakim had no previous convictions and also the age of the defendant.

He added that were it not for the fact that he had repaid the debt in full, Al-Hakim would certainly be facing an immediate custodial sentence.

Councillor Thomas Fairhead, Cabinet Member for Finance and Property, said: “Our fraud investigators follow up every suspicion to ensure that benefit cheats are prosecuted so that taxpayers’ money goes to those people in genuine need.

"We will not tolerate this kind of deliberate abuse which amounts to stealing from the people who need it most.”

The council operates a hotline to report fraud. Call 020 7361 2777 or email investigations@rbkc.gov.uk.