HUSSAIN: JOBCENTRE ADVISER JAILED FOR BENEFITS FRAUD

A Jobcentre worker who used his knowledge of the benefits system for an ‘outrageous’ £56,000 fraud was jailed for a year today (Fri).

Employment adviser Joinal Hussain, 47, falsely claimed his wife Fatima, 39, was lone parent when they were happily married and living together.

The scam lasted for almost a decade, as the family’s total income regularly topped £5,000 a month, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

Joinal Hussain had masterminded the plot while working at the Jobcentre in Dodd St, Poplar, east London, where had worked since 1989.

While the couple made no secret of their happy marriage to Mr Hussain’s colleagues, they maintained the lie that they were separated in numerous benefit claims.

Fatima Hussain first began dishonestly claiming benefits as a lone parent in January 2001, when the family were living at 33 Flansham House in Clemence St, Mile End, east London.

Between 2001 and 2004, she dishonestly obtained order books from the Department of Work and Pensions to the total of £21,191.

In 2005 the couple, who have a 14-year-old daughter who suffers from severe autism, ‘executed a plan’ to make Mrs Hussain homeless, so they could move to another home in nearby Malam Gardens.

She made further false claims for council tax benefit, housing benefit and free school meals, with the family receiving a further £32,000 between 2005 and 2010.

Joinal Hussain twice accessed a work computer in July and December 2009 to check on the status of his wife’s claim after being tipped-off about a potential investigation.

But they continued to claim benefits illegally until they were arrested on 4 August last year.

Police seized Mr Hussain’s computer containing ‘meticulous financial records’ detailing the family’s income, in which he treated his wife’s benefits ‘as his own’, the court heard.

The records showed that at one stage they got £5,170 a month, made up of both Mr Hussain’s wages and his wife’s benefits.

They also made reference to Fatima Hussain owning property in Bangladesh.

Investigators had only been able to link Joinal Hussain to £32,000 of the false claims, but he had later admitted to have been involved in the fraud from the start.

Prosecutor Gideon Cammerman said: ‘Joinal Hussain had worked at the Department for Work and Pensions since 1989, and during his employment he has obtained a detailed knowledge of the benefits system.

‘In short, they pretended to be separated, and Mrs Hussain received benefit of some £56,000 on the basis that she was not living with Mr Hussain.

‘Had he and she properly admitted they were living together, they would not have been entitled to those benefits.’

The couple both later admitted the fraud, with Mrs Hussain pleading guilty on the basis that she was not the instigator of the plan of the main beneficiary.

Sentencing the pair, judge recorder Nigel Lithman QC, said: ‘This is a series of outrageous, persistent, serious pre-meditated frauds.

‘These are disgraceful matters that bring shame on your family.’

Fatima Hussain, of Malam Gardens, Poplar, east London, admitted obtaining property by deception.

She also pleaded guilty to two counts of making a false statement or representation, and two counts of obtaining money transfers by deception.

Joinal Hussain, whose address was listed at the family’s former home in Flansham House, Clemence St, Mile End, admitted one count of making a false statement or representation.

He also admitted obtaining money transfers by deception, and two counts of unauthorised access to a computer.

The judge said he had committed a ‘gross’ breach of the trust placed in him by his employers at the DWP.

He was jailed for 12 months.

His wife was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for two years, and 150 hours of unpaid work.

Ends.