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Brighton benefit cheat pocketed more than £12,000

12:40pm Friday 29th January 2010 in News By Alison Cridland

A 40-year-old faked a letter from a landlord to illegally claim more than £12,000 in housing benefit.

Dawn Hardwick claimed housing and council tax benefit from Brighton and Hove City Council for a flat in Lansdowne Place, Hove.

But council officers became suspicious when she made a new claim last year and an investigation revealed she was not living at the flat and had falsified a letter from a landlord to make the application.

Brighton Magistrates’ Court was told Hardwick received £12,095.22 she was not entitled to.

She was sentenced to eight weeks in prison suspended for a year by Brighton Magistrates after admitting eight offences of benefit fraud between 2007 and 2009.

Hardwick, of Montpelier Road, Brighton, was also ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work in the community and pay £960 costs.

The 40-year-old told the court she would carry out all the unpaid work next month as she was moving to Holland in March to work for a flower company.

Comments(16)

chroma says...
1:21pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Well done to the Council for taking her to court where, as always, the muppets who sit on the bench who handed out such a lenient sentence.
This woman defrauds the tax payer to the tune of £12,095.22 and is sentenced to do 100 hours of unpaid work, which by my calculations means she's getting paid £120 an hour and her only qualification is being a convicted theif.
Is it any wonder the public are fed up with supposed 'justice.'

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spanos says...
1:25pm Fri 29 Jan 10

£12,000 she recieved, £960 she paid back which leaves £11,040 in ill gotten gains. She will do 100 hours community service which, by my calulations, works out at £110.40 PER HOUR !! Who said crime doesnt pay

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longman says...
1:31pm Fri 29 Jan 10

I think you will find that magistrates are restricted to the amount that they are able to place on the criminal as a fine. As they are with how long they are able to commit the person to prison. Depending on the charge, it will either be settled in magistrates' or sent to up crown court, where she should have recieved a far harsher jail term. By the way, its thief not theif. 'i before e exept after c'!!!

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chroma says...
1:50pm Fri 29 Jan 10

longman wrote:
I think you will find that magistrates are restricted to the amount that they are able to place on the criminal as a fine. As they are with how long they are able to commit the person to prison. Depending on the charge, it will either be settled in magistrates' or sent to up crown court, where she should have recieved a far harsher jail term. By the way, its thief not theif. 'i before e exept after c'!!!
Thanks very much for taking the time to point out my typo. And by the way, one is not sent 'to up Crown Court', but to Crown Court. Crown Court, and Magistrates Court, are also spelt with a capital letters, as in the Argus report above.

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Granny says...
1:58pm Fri 29 Jan 10

If this the type of sentence handed out for stealing taxpayers money I am beginning to think it is a profitable "business". She should be made to pay back all the money stolen and if she has none at the moment, it should be deducted from the wages she expects tp get in Holland. That is if she still has a job to go to.

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chroma says...
2:07pm Fri 29 Jan 10

chroma wrote:
longman wrote: I think you will find that magistrates are restricted to the amount that they are able to place on the criminal as a fine. As they are with how long they are able to commit the person to prison. Depending on the charge, it will either be settled in magistrates' or sent to up crown court, where she should have recieved a far harsher jail term. By the way, its thief not theif. 'i before e exept after c'!!!
Thanks very much for taking the time to point out my typo. And by the way, one is not sent 'to up Crown Court', but to Crown Court. Crown Court, and Magistrates Court, are also spelt with a capital letters, as in the Argus report above.
Sure you won't mind my also pointing out that the the word 'recieved' (as written in your post above) is actually spent received.
As in 'i before e, except after c'.

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spanos says...
2:31pm Fri 29 Jan 10

The ancient spelling rule you mention has its purpose in society. It is not based in science but is usually sufficient..........
................unle
ss you wish to spell science, sufficient, ancient or society

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disgruntledHove says...
2:33pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Unbelievable!!!..no wonder it is such a popular hobby.
100 hours ...and usually not completed in most cases. I wonder what proportion of her ill gotten gains enabled her to move to Holland.

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Gaz the great says...
3:42pm Fri 29 Jan 10

This woman has all the makings of a top MP-Should have remembered to shred the evidence first though!

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Gentleman Jim says...
3:55pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Can you wonder there is so much crime being committed,first of all there is a good chance you will not be caught,however if you are, then the sentence will be light but then halved because of the need to keep prisoners numbers down.
Please do not waste your time pointing out any spelling or punctuation errors as they are caused by a substandard keyboard which does not correct my errors.

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HoveAlone says...
4:14pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Argus get it right please. Landsowne Place is in Hove not Brighton. Therefore the article title should read "Hove benefit cheat".

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Motorcyclist says...
5:36pm Fri 29 Jan 10

The Magistrate's Court has no jurisdiction to order repayment of overpaid Housing Benefit. The local authority can - and should - recover every penny that was stolen through their recovery procedures, including civil recovery action in the County Court.

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davyboy says...
8:15pm Fri 29 Jan 10

Motorcyclist wrote:
The Magistrate's Court has no jurisdiction to order repayment of overpaid Housing Benefit. The local authority can - and should - recover every penny that was stolen through their recovery procedures, including civil recovery action in the County Court.
quite right, and they do too. civil recovery means they will ask you how much you can afford, and then accept that as apayment. if you are currently on Housing Benefit, they will reduce what you get until you have repaid the outstanding amount. this could take years, of course, if it is a large amount.

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davyboy says...
8:18pm Fri 29 Jan 10

further to my last, how about removing her passport, so she can't go abroad until the money is repaid. once away, i could almostb guarantee we would never see her again!!

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kkj says...
12:32am Sat 30 Jan 10

HoveAlone wrote:
Argus get it right please. Landsowne Place is in Hove not Brighton. Therefore the article title should read "Hove benefit cheat".
Its a sorry state of affairs when we start arguing which town a benefit cheat belongs to.
Anyway you can have her, us respectable Brightonians want nothing to do with her.

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kkj says...
12:35am Sat 30 Jan 10

Secondly, Argus, if she's 40 now, she was 37 or 38 when she faked the letter.

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