Kirklees taxi driver and teaching assistant spared jail over £14,000 benefits fraud
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/wes ... t-34255232
A teaching assistant and a taxi driver have been sentenced at Leeds Crown Court after they admitted fiddling the benefits system out of almost £14,000.
Farzana Iqbal, a teacher assistant, and Omar Farooq Iqbal, a self-employed taxi driver, were claiming Universal Credit but failed to tell the Department of Work and Pensions about a house they owned that they rented out, Kirklees magistrates' court heard last month.
Farzana and Omar, of Halifax Road, Dewsbury, each admitted making a false statement in that they failed to declare their ownership of a property from which they received a rental income.
Shamaila Qureshi, prosecuting, told magistrates last month that both Farzana and Omar had received Universal Credit between March 2023 and November 2024. They told DWP that they had no savings and had an income of only £139 per month. They had failed to disclose they owned a property in Heckmondwike.
The overpayment in Universal Credit amounted to just under £14,000. Both were said to be of previous good character.
Farzana and Omar were both sentenced at Leeds Crown Court earlier this week.
Both were handed a 12 month community order and told to each carry out 100 hours of unpaid work. Magistrates were told last month that Proceeds of Crime confiscation proceedings were continuing.