A security guard claimed nearly £45,000 illegally after telling the authorities he was unemployed – and continued claiming payments even after being caught.
Ali Soleman, 45, held a number of jobs while claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment Support Allowance, housing benefit, and council tax benefit over a nine-year period.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard the defendant was caught in 2018 after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) discovered a data match on their system after Soleman declared one job but not the other.
Prosecutor Ieuan Bennett said Soleman had been working for a cleaning company and as a security guard.
But after he was arrested and interviewed by police he continued to illegally claim benefits for a month in 2018 after failing to declare a change in circumstances.
The defendant, who was aided by an interpreter at the hearing on Friday, later pleaded guilty to two counts of making false representations for the obtaining of benefits and one count of fraud.
The total amount Soleman had illegally claimed was £44,500.
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Defence barrister Derrick Gooden said his client was of good character and now understands the “error of his ways”.
He said Soleman was paying back the sum he had illegally claimed by admitted it was “not going to be paid off any time soon”.
Sentencing, the Recorder of Cardiff Judge Eleri Rees said: “Over a period of nine years you obtained benefits by lying about the employment you had. It was blatant because you declared one employment that you had – you knew you had to declare it but had others.
“It appears that therefore the claim was fraudulent from the outset and you obtained nearly £45,000 that should not have been paid.
“However having been found out and interviewed in the early part of 2018 you could have been under no doubt as to what your responsibilities were but you carried on and last summer you committed further dishonest offences of failing to notify a change in your circumstances.
“This was a blatant piece of dishonesty and you continued to dispute the fact you had been caught.”
Soleman, of Falcon Drive, Cardiff Bay , was sentenced to a total of 12 months imprisonment.
