Defendant sentenced over fraudulent £50k claim against North West council

A man has been given a 13-month custodial sentence, suspended for 18 months, after he was found guilty of bringing a fraudulent claim estimated to be worth more than £50,000 against Oldham Council.

According to the local authority and its lawyers BLM, Mark Washington had alleged that he had fallen down an open manhole whilst looking for his dog on derelict council property.

An investigation by BLM on Oldham’s behalf established that a letter from a former employer – in support for a fictitious claim of loss of earnings of £17,000 – was a forgery.

BLM said the company in question had no knowledge of the letter put forward by the claimant, nor had any intent of offering him employment having dismissed him some years previously.

The matter was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service. Washington was then charged with fraud by use of a false instrument.

Washington pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to making a fraudulent claim for loss of earnings supported by legal documentation.

He was sentenced to a 13-month custodial sentence to be suspended for 18 months. He will also serve 250 hours community service, and is subject to a six-month supervision order as well as a two-month curfew order.

BLM partner Paul Tarne said: “This case highlights the courts are prepared, at a time when local authorities are under extreme financial pressure, to ensure false claimants are held to account, and should act as a deterrent to others considering entering a false claim in the future.” 

Emma Alexander, Executive Director Corporate and Commercial Services at Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, said: “Over the last five years Mark Washington continuously refused to admit he had acted fraudulently and it was only on the first day of his trial that he came clean. 

“The council could have paid out his claim and the bill would have run into the thousands of pounds. Now that money can be used to improve services and neighbourhoods across the borough. Hopefully the sentence handed down by the court will act as a warning to anyone else who thinks they can get away with defrauding the council and ultimately all council tax payers.”