Tax-credit cheat jailed for 13 months
Father-of-two pocketed £80,000 over three years after claiming he had 36 children
Published:
A father who fraudulently pocketed almost £80,000 of child tax credits by claiming he had 36 children was jailed for 13 months yesterday.
Recovering heroin addict Irvin Fraser, 30, from Aberdeen, spent almost three years making false claims to the Department of Work and Pensions, principally to feed his habit, it was heard at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
But the scam went undetected even though four of the claims were made for the same children.
Fraser, of 44 Abbey Place, Torry, has two children, and only one of them stayed at his home.
Fraser admitted making the claims in writing and over the phone between November 2003 and June 2006 at 10F Tullos Circle, Aberdeen, 44 Abbey Place and elsewhere.
The claims were made in four different names.
Speaking previously, Fraser said he went on spending sprees buying clothes, toys and other products to “spoil his children rotten".
Sheriff Alexander Jessop said: “It seems surprising that you can simply phone up and children can be added and then payments can be made into a bank account for 36 children and no checks are made.
“The children didn’t even exist. Don’t you need a birth certificate or something?”
The sheriff questioned how the amount being claimed was not queried before.
Defence agent Shane Campbell said his client carried out the fraud to feed his drug habit. He added: “When you have someone abusing that level of heroin and he is given the opportunity to obtain ready cash it’s unfortunate but unrealistic that the addict’s simply going to stop.”
Mr Campbell said Fraser accepted his crime was not victimless.
He admitted during an interview to signing forms his partner had completed and to making phone calls to lodge the claims.
Not guilty pleas from co-accused Annette Fraser, 37, were accepted.
A HM Revenue and Customs spokesman last night said they are “constantly reviewing” their procedures.
He said: “Any comment that comes from a member of the judiciary will be investigated by the department. We will consider what has been said and take appropriate action.
“We have taken on various measures to combat organised attacks on the system, but those systems are constantly under review.”
However, Revenue and Customs assistant director of investigation Anne-Marie Gordon said Fraser’s conviction showed how the system is robust at clamping down on cheats.
She said: “This case shows that the defendant deliberately claimed tax credits to which he was not entitled, in a premeditated attack on the tax credits system.
“Making fraudulent tax credit claims is not a victimless crime and he had little consideration for the public purse or the individual whose identity he used to commit this fraud.”
