Benefit fraud - do i need a lawyer part 2

SkyWatcher_3

Just remember that the adjudication of benefit is always on the balance of probabilities, whereas criminal guilt must be proven beyond reasonable doubt. It's not a crime to be overpaid benefit.

If you are found not guilty then the decision about your benefit entitlement will not change unless you are successful in making an appeal. If you haven't already considered making an appeal then get on with it. Word of warning - CAB or other welfare rights group will be better for appeal related advice than a solicitor who generally deals with criminal law.

[Deleted User]

x4xy wrote: »

Again thank you for all your contributions, some really good pointers... I repeat again for the odd poster who seem to be here to pass sentences rather than to try to give answers to the topics - I am not seeking "legal" advice from anybody (I am already paying a lawyer for this). I am just asking for your honest opinions and your personal answers and experiences, so I can look at the issues from as many angles as possible. This not for my own personal benefit only, but hopefully for anybody else reading these pages - and I am sure there will be thousands of them in the long run - who might find something useful in the way they look at their own situations.

I dont see anyone passing any sentence here,its simple,you had another thread asking if you should get a lawyer to help,now you have you want people to pass comment on the advice or lack of advice they have given
ask these questions of the lawyer whos about to charge you £500

System

x4xy wrote: »

This thread is continuing from where the thread BENEFIT FRAUD - DO I NEED A LAWYER ended, posted on 05-01-2012, 2:38 PM. That one was part 1 and this is part 2. If you wish to you can go to part I to get updated before reading whatever will appear on this thread

I went to court today for benefit fraud for not declaring all the capital in my income support application and the capital total was above the limits allowed for income support. I was ready to plead guilty and get it over quickly as - looking back, I'd have rather spent a couple of months in jail than living for almost a year sick and ill and unable to do anything with my life with the worry of this case.
However my lawyer arrived and she looked at my papers and she advised me to plead not guilty, on the grounds that the money my sister sent me into my account should not be counted as an increase of my personal capital, on the grounds that I never used such money for my benefit and I was keeping it for my sister, even though I do not have any written document or witness to back this up.
According to my lawyer reasoning when I made my original application for income support I was not being dishonest as my personal capital, the part I used for my own benefit was within the limits accepted for income support.

So I pleaded not guilty and the trial was adjourned to another date.

I have the following questions:
1) Is the lawyer reasoning right, taking into account I do not have hard proof - ie nothing written down - of when my sister sent me the money?

2) The lawyer said that she would write to crown prosecutions to ask them to drop the prosecution against me because as I have paid in full the overpayment of £ 15,000 and I never used my sister's capital in my account for my own benefit there is no public interest in prosecuting me. What chances are there that the prosecution will be dropped?

3) Having pleaded not guilty I will have to pay the lawyer an extra £500 to see me through the upcoming trial. Am I right to wonder the lawyer might have convinced me to plead not guilty so she could make more money out of my case?

4) My lawyer said as a first time offender with that amount of overpayment and having paid it in full, I would not have a jail sentence. Does that sound likely?

I hope posters from Part One will also contribute to this Part Two, as I got really a lot of ideas and enlightnment from most of them.

thanks again and please keep posting you honest advice.

I would do what your lawyer says. I don't want to put you wrong and give you the wrong advice. But why have you not got legal aid anyway? Barbara.

cattie

In a case where intention to defraud DWP isn't proven, then it's really quite unlikely you will receive a prison term, so don't worry too much about this at the moment.

Pity you've still got to hang on for a verdict & not been put out of your misery yet. Have they given you a date for the next hearing or do you have to wait for it?

x4xy

Cattie, Yes a date has been set for the next hearing.