A Crown Court case that I have been dealing with since it's beginning carved today. The case was destined to carve from day one but the case had been so poorly investigated and prosecuted it was difficult to know if the Prosecution would get it's act together in time for the trial to prove anything.
The case was being prosecuted by the Department for Work and Pensions, and they made a right shambles of the initial investigation. They carried out surveillance and failed to take witness statements from people whom the Defendants came in to contact with. They seized a great deal of financial details for bank accounts but failed to check the accounts thoroughly for fraudulent activity. One thing that I noticed was that there was a four month break in the surveillance, presumably as there was a lack of overtime for the investigation!
To cut a long story short the Department for Work and Pensions Investigator estimated his costs to be in excess of £100,000. Now that is a lot of money to be spent on behalf of the tax payer to investigate and prosecute benefit fraud. What did £100,000 get in terms of convictions? Well it got convictions for three people for a mixture of benefit fraud and deception offences amounting to £1,500 for each Defendant.
Whoever was responsible for the investigation of this case at the Department for Work and Pensions should have a good look at what they have achieved with this particular case. The money spent here could have been spent far better on other matters, such training for the investigating officers!
1 comment:
"The money spent here could have been spent far better on other matters, such training for the investigating officers!"
Or better yet refunded to the taxpayer.
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