How the other half live

[Sean]

LMAO

[Gob]

and another one gets away with a severe letting off...

A refugee from Afghanistan who lived in a £1.2million mansion paid for with £3,000-a-week in housing benefit was spared jail today after admitting benefit fraud.

Toorpakai Saiedi, 38, a mother of seven, shocked Britain when it emerged that New Labour rules allowed her to live in the luxury home at taxpayers' expense.

One of her seven children even boasted that having the house in Acton, west London, was like winning a lottery jackpot - and suggested it was 'mad' for the state to pay out so much.

While receiving the huge handouts, Saiedi was building up her own savings and hiding a private income of £16,000-a-year.

She admitted swindling the taxpayer out of £30,000 in housing benefit, working tax credit and council tax credit by not telling officials about her Barclays bank account.

But today she was handed a 10-month sentence, suspended for two years, and 150 hours community service instead of going to prison.

Recorder Oscar Del-Fabbro, sitting at Isleworth Crown Court, told her: 'You knew full well this was dishonest. The claim went on for just under three years.

'The full amount obtained by you dishonestly was just short of £30,000, a £30,000 loss to the public revenue.'

Prosecutor Henrietta Paget told Isleworth Crown Court that the offences covered fraudulent claims for council tax benefit, housing benefit and income support.

At the time she was receiving benefits totalling £170,000 a year, including an astonishing £150,000 paid to a private landlord for the rent of the property - the equivalent to £12,500 a month.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1IyTjl5g6

[Gob]

A family of 12 asylum-seekers is being put up in a vast house costing taxpayers nearly £1,500 a week, it has emerged.

The Ethiopian couple and their ten children are receiving a staggering £1,460 a week in housing benefit alone. The jobless couple will also be eligible for other handouts such as unemployment and child benefits, which could potentially add up to an additional £1,300 a week.

Council officials, who refused to give further details of the case, found the family a mini mansion after they arrived in London from Africa in the past few weeks. It was not revealed whether the family is suspected of entering the UK illegally before claiming asylum. The couple receive a weekly sum of £1,462.90, according to the council’s housing benefits claims department, meaning that the family will cost taxpayers £76,000 in housing benefit alone if allowed to stay in the property for 12 months.

The couple would realistically have to be among the nation’s top earners on wages of £230,000 before tax to afford to spend the same amount of money on rent or a mortgage.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1KCpsA6zU

[loCAtek]

dailymail.co, 'nuff said.

[Sean]

Oh well if you say so then it must be so...

[loCAtek]

Nope, I checked the link.

[Rick]

He was responding to you...

[loCAtek]

'eh? In this thread, all I said was; it was the Daily Fail Mail, as confirmed by link...

[Sean]

I was referring to the fact that you appear to have jumped on the bandwagon which believes that nothing the Daily Mail prints is accurate without (and I'm taking an educated guess here) knowing anything about the paper in question.

Try having an original thought. It doesn't hurt, I promise.

[loCAtek]

Um, not by consensus, but by personal observation (confirmed by studying links) did I conclude that the Daily Mail was an opinionated tabloid, and not a credible news source.

[Sean]

Sure...

It didn't take very long on Google to find where you got your 'original thought' that the Mail is just an "opinionated tabloid" from...

[loCAtek]

To be frank, no it didn't interest me before; after the search (and being exposed to it's article) it doesn't interest me now.


Some how, do you think it should?

[Sean]

Hmmm...

Well, given the fact that the bicycle is shining on my knees and that tonight marks the feast of the Dominated Badger, I would have to conclude that the evidence does point towards a widening of the trouser leg by Whitsun.

[Rick]

Who's Whitson?

You Scots also eat roadkill I see...

[Sean]

After reading Lo's post I thought we were communicating in gibberish...

[loCAtek]

Yup, that describes Daily Mail quite well.

[Sean]

Oh the rapier wit.

Almost Swiftian...

[Gob]

A CONVICTED sex attacker who should have been deported eight years ago is costing taxpayers £1,000 a month.

Sarafa Salami was jailed for four years for attacking a woman in 2005, two years after he should have left Britain. But he was still living here, costing the taxpayer £200,000 in accommodation and benefits.

Salami, from Togo, west Africa, has been described as a “risk to women and children”. He lives in a plush £800-a-month flat in West Drayton, Middlesex, and gets £160 in food vouchers. Since arriving in Britain it has cost taxpayers £112,000 to keep him in prison and an additional £95,000 for his stay in an immigration detention centre.

When he arrived to claim asylum in 2000, his case notes said: “He requests self-catering accommodation due to his special dietary needs. He would also like to be placed near a hospital due to the potential need for an operation. He would like to have English classes and so requests there is a college nearby. He also needs to be near a mosque.”

Salami, who has two children, claimed he was wrongly convicted. He said: “There’s no law in this country for a foreign person.”

He moaned his flat is like “a little prison and also complained he cannot buy halal food with the cash card provided by the National Asylum Support Service. He said: “You have to be like a beggar.”

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/20 ... xury-flat/

[Crackpot]

Sarafa Salami

I don't believe it

[Gob]

An unemployed couple and their family have been moved into a luxurious London home worth £2million - and pay it with a monthly £8,000 housing benefit funded by the taxpayer.

Unemployed Saeed Kahliif, 49, from Somalia, his wife Sayida and their children have been handed the keys to a sprawling six-bedroom home in West Hampstead, in North London.
After moving from their Coventry home - which cost £1,000 a month in rent - the new property is thought to be one of the most expensive houses ever paid for by housing benefit.




The People reported that the family have moved from their cheaper house to the exclusive postcode so they can be nearer their friends and family who live in the capital.
Estate agents boasted that the opulent home is a 'stunning six-bedroom, two-reception house' and was 'recently refurbished to a high standard offering ample living space with a spacious en suite master bedroom.' Four of the bedrooms have an ensuite shower room, two have dressing rooms and it also boasts a 90ft garden.

It is unclear how many children the family have. The family can now count comedian and author Stephen Fry as their neighbour.
One of six bedrooms which include en suite rooms or dressing rooms. The family have moved from Coventry where their rent was £1,000 a month

When approached by The People Mr Khaliif said in the three years that he had lived in the UK, he and his wife had not worked and were reliant on benefits to support them and their family.Camden Council declined to comment to the newspaper, but Cllr Johnny Bucknell, who sits on their housing committee, said: 'When Camden housing is gridlocked and there is ample room up north, why are we encouraging people to move south?'

Cllr Chris Knight whose ward includes the family's home was puzzled as to why the taxpayer was funding the expensive upgrade when there were so many people desperately needing a home.

'It seems daft that we have people from this area who we can't house but are spending £8,000 on rent from someone outside of Camden.'

Although the government brought in new measures to cap housing benefits and try to stop outrageous rent prices being forced onto the public purse. Capped at £400 a week, the Khaliif's new home was advertised at £7,800 a month, and would not be an option. But because the family moved before the changes have been introduced they can count the light and spacious home as theirs.
The Department of Work and Pensions, which funds housing benefits, told the newspaper: 'It is unfair on taxpayers that some claimants are in large homes most working families can afford. It is vital we lower housing benefit costs.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1V353uRaM