A married couple from Essex swindled £630,000 by fraudulently claiming benefits and evading tax, using the proceeds to build a 'Monopoly-style' property empire, a court has heard.
The Fraud Scheme
Steve and Kim Benstock made false claims to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) while failing to declare significant earnings to HMRC. The couple used the ill-gotten gains to fund a 'somewhat lavish lifestyle', including trips to Thailand and the Caribbean and purchasing a holiday home in Fuerteventura.
Snaresbrook Crown Court heard that the grandparents committed benefit fraud by claiming means-tested benefits they were not entitled to from July 2002 to July 2019. Steve Benstock, 62, lived a 'double life', using false names such as 'Steve Twinley' to open bank accounts and obtain a driving licence, while telling the DWP that a 'Steve Cash' was living at and paying the mortgage on one of his properties.
Tax Fraud and Property Empire
Steve Benstock also failed to pay income tax and national insurance contributions, defrauding HMRC between May 2004 and January 2020 while working as a bar manager. In October 2008, he told housing officers at Newham Council that they had 'no money in any bank accounts' to claim housing benefit, despite having over £32,000 in a joint account and assets worth more than £400,000.
The couple similarly defrauded Epping Forest District Council in July 2012, claiming housing benefit and council tax support despite having an interest in three properties. Prosecutor Alex Davidson told the court that the couple 'built up an impressive collection of properties, reminiscent of the boardgame Monopoly', from which they collected rental income.
The couple had up to half a million pounds worth of assets but committed tax fraud by failing to notify the sale of three homes in east London and Romford. Steve Benstock committed a total of £253,713 in benefits fraud, rising to £539,691 when combined with tax fraud. Kim Benstock committed £61,933 of benefit fraud, totalling £88,340 with tax offences.
Sentencing
The couple were rumbled after a probe by the DWP and HMRC. Steve Benstock was jailed for five years after being found guilty of 12 charges, including obtaining a money transfer by deception, fraud, dishonestly failing to notify a change in circumstances, and cheating the public revenue. Kim Benstock was handed a nine-month sentence, suspended for a year, for six counts of housing benefit, council tax benefit, and capital gains tax evasion.
Mitigating for Steve Benstock, defence barrister Stephen Cooke admitted he was 'not a man of good character', with three non-violent convictions from the 1980s and 1990s. However, he argued for a non-custodial sentence due to Steve's 'daily, almost 24-hour a day caring role' for his wife, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and receives disability living allowance.
Mitigating for Kim Benstock, defence barrister Katherine Lloyd said her role was 'limited' to signing two forms and that the court process had been a 'sobering experience' leaving her 'deeply mortified'.
Sentencing the couple, Judge Franklin said none of the money had been recovered, adding: 'From July 2002 to July 2019, you both received state benefits after obtaining them dishonestly. This money was set aside to help the most vulnerable in society, and it was greed on both your parts that led you to divert these funds.'
Andrew Western, Work and Pensions Minister for Transformation, said: 'This is a stark example of the kind of brazen fraud that this Government is determined to root out. While the Benstocks were acting like Monopoly tycoons... they were helping themselves to benefits they had absolutely no right to. The game is now up and this case should be a warning to others.'
