Royal Greenwich Prosecutes £85,000 Benefit Fraudster - Crook To Spend 18 Months In Jail

by our RBG Correspondent | Woolwich

A sales assistant has been jailed for 18 months for falsely claiming housing benefits from the Royal Borough of Greenwich, totaling over £85,000.

Mr Poobalasingam Sivabaskaran, 46, of Heavitree Road, Plumstead, had declared to the Royal Borough that he lived at the property in Heavitree Road with his wife and three children, and that he rented the property from a private landlord for £900 a month. However, an anonymous tip-off was received alleging that Mr Sivabaskaran was living beyond his means and that the ownership of the property should be checked.

Enquiries by the Royal Borough’s Internal Audit & Anti-Fraud team found that the owner and landlord of the property was in fact Mr Sivabaskaran’s cousin and that the relationship had not been declared to the Council. It was also found that the landlord only received around £400 of the £900 paid to Mr Sivabaskaran in housing benefit to cover his rental payments.

Further enquiries identified that Mr Sivabaskaran had several bank accounts that had not been declared on his housing benefit applications. Found within these accounts were unexplained credits and money which exceeded the required amount in order to be able to claim benefits.

Mr Sivabaskaran was interviewed by Council officers and answered “no comment” to all questions put to him.

The case proceeded to Court and in October 2015 Mr Sivabaskaran appeared at Woolwich Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to 5 offences under the Social Security Administration Act 1992 relating to housing benefit totalling £85,820.56 awarded to him during the period April 2004 to March 2014.

On 20 November Mr Sivabaskaran appeared at Woolwich Crown Court for sentencing and was given an 18 month prison sentence. Mr Sivabaskaran will have to repay the money that he defrauded upon his release from prison.

Councillor Maureen O’Mara (pictured top), Cabinet Member for Customer Services, said “This is a significant sum of money and Mr Sivabaskaran’s greed has not only deprived others of much needed benefit assistance, but has cost him a lengthy period in jail away from his family.

His actions were deplorable and I fully support the prison sentence. This case is all thanks to an anonymous member of the community who took the time out to call us. I would like to take this opportunity to urge others to report fraud. Our team of award winning investigators are ready to take your call and will treat any information you give them in the strictest confidence.”

If you suspect someone of committing fraud against the royal borough call 0800 169 6975 or email: fraud@royalgreenwich.gov.uk. Any information you give will be treated in confidence.