3:28pm Monday 6th July 2009
By Steve Wright
A judge condemned the inefficiency of the Department of Work and Pensions today after it took more than two years to bring a woman to court for benefit fraud.
Parveen Akhtar, 49, was given a community sentence after pleading guilty to illegally claiming £15,800 in Jobseekers Allowance while she was working as a cleaner at the University of Bradford. But Judge Roger Scott told Akhtar that had her case been dealt with in 2007 he believed she would have gone to prison.
He said: “It is totally unacceptable that the DWP should take such a long time – over two years – to get you into court. There is no proper, valid explanation for it, other than total, utter inefficiency. A judge once said ‘justice delayed is justice denied.’ This is a prime example.”
Akhtar, of Waverley Road, Great Horton, pleaded guilty to six charges, covering the period between February 2001 and January 2007.
Prosecutor Chloe Hudson told Brad-ford Crown Court Akhtar received the benefits on the grounds she did not have any other earnings. But she had been employed at the university since September 1999.
She was interviewed by the DWP in February 2007 and gave the explanation that she misunderstood the benefit rules and believed she could work for under 16 hours and still claim.
Judge Scott said: “It would not be justice now to lock you up when you have been waiting nearly two and a half years from your interview.
“You are repaying a small amount and hopefully you will be able to pay more in the future.”
The judge sentenced her to a 12-month community sentence, including six months of supervision by the probation service and the carrying out of 120 hours’ unpaid work.
DWP fraud investigator Vernon Sanderson said after the case: “We prosecute more than 1,000 cases each year in Yorkshire and the Humber and do our best to get cases dealt with promptly. We are looking to find ways to stop this happening in the future.”
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