Moseley man jailed for benefit fraud
A BIRMINGHAM man, who used multiple identities to illegally obtain £24,000 in benefits, has been jailed for ten months.
Dharminder Bassi was secretly observed by benefit fraud investigators making false claims at two job centres.
Recorder Christopher Tickle told him: “These offences were quite deliberately carried out over a long period and were motivated by your own greed.
“Benefit frauds are frauds on the rest of the community.”
He said he accepted Bassi had spent money he obtained on his daughter.
Bassi, 32, of Alcester Road, Moseley, had previously admitted two charges of obtaining property by deception.
Richard Dewsbery, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said that around 2003, the defendant had changed his name by deed poll.
As a result he was given a second national insurance number.
He said he took advantage of this to obtain job seekers’ allowance for five years and eight months by claiming under a false name.
Mr Dewsbery said Bassi had claimed income support on the basis that he was too ill to work as a result of suffering from depression and schizophrenia.
However, in October 2006, he got a job as a forklift truck driver with a textile firm.
He remained in employment for just over two years but failed to declare this to the department.
