Benefits cheat owned 26 properties

A benefits cheat who owned a £2.6 million property portfolio has been jailed after claiming £74,000 in handouts.

Seema Bassi, 49, owned 26 homes across Kent, which were bringing in £150,000 in rent a year. Some were even rented to the Gravesham Council and used for housing asylum seekers. But by claiming she was an unemployed single mother, Bassi pocketed £67,819 in housing benefit and £6,118 council tax benefits.

The court heard that Bassi bought her first property in 1994 and started claiming benefits three years later.

At the same time as claiming to the council she was jobless, she was telling mortgage lenders that she earned £69,200 a year working for a property firm.

Paper trail

The fraud was uncovered when Gravesham Council started investigating Bassi's brother for failing to pay council tax, and documents revealed that he had sold 18 houses to his sister. Bassi unsuccessfully claimed that the properties were held in trust for family members.

She was convicted earlier this year of five counts of fraud, and has now been sentenced to 12 months in jail.

Last year, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and local authorities recovered around £940 million that had been overpaid due to benefit fraud and error across the UK.

"It is encouraging to see that the level of fraud and error is now lower than before the start of the Parliament and we are recovering more money than ever," says minister for welfare reform Lord Freud.

"Benefit fraud is completely unacceptable but we know there is more to do and that is why we are toughening the rules to crack down on fraudsters as part of the government's long-term economic plan."

New rules to catch fraudsters

These measures include new rules that mean 40% of individuals' benefits can be taken to repay stolen money, on top of any fine or custodial sentence handed out by the courts. The penalty that
someone committing fraud can receive without being taken to court has been increased from £2,000 to £5,00, and bailiffs can now be brought in to confiscate high-value possessions from convicted benefit fraudsters.

It will become easier to catch the fraudsters, too. Jobseeker's Allowance claims can now be checked against PAYE to catch claimants that are lying about working.

However, it's worth remembering that cases like Bassi's are comparatively rare - and getting rarer. A survey last year by Ipsos MORI for the Royal Statistical Society and King's College London showed that the public massively overestimates the extent of benefits fraud. While the public believes that £24 out of every £100 spent on benefits is claimed fraudulently, the true figure is just 70p.

Read more about benefits on AOL Money:
What to do if you missed the tax credits deadline
Families 'stuck in working poverty'
State perks for working beyond 65 are slashed