High-Rolling Benefit Cheat With Expensive Tastes Is Jailed

Sussams protesting his innocence to BBC's Panorama

A Bentley-driving benefit cheat, who lived a double life as a gastropub boss serving a wealthy yachting community £125 truffle and champagne burgers, received twelve months imprisonment yesterday for a £32,000 fraud.

Businessman Stephen John Sussams, 59, the ex-boss of the landmark Royal Dart, The Square, Kingswear, Devon treated the council flat he received housing benefit for as his London "pied-à-terre" during the scam.

He will now swap his old gourmet menu, which included crocodile, impala and ostrich, for prison grub after he was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court.

Sussams was featured in a BBC Panorama investigation screened last year called 'Britain on the Fiddle' and when confronted while sitting in his Bentley said he refused to engage in "trial by television."

He deliberately kept his business interests and three companies secret from Croydon Council, who continued paying £14,625 to cover the rent and council tax on the one-bedroom flat he shared with his younger civil partner at 2 Marston Way, Upper Norwood.

Sussams also drained the account of the flat's deceased former tenant, Keith Dickinson, who  once worked for nightclub boss Peter Stringfellow, stealing £17,600 in carer's allowance payments.

'It is clear from the verdict of the jury that you knew full well that was money the council mistakenly paid into the account of Keith Dickinson after he died," Judge Peter Gow QC told the defendant.

"I have no doubt you knew that money was for providing a care service to him and you equally knew it was no longer needed for that purpose.

"Instead of returning these precious resources to the council you used them for yourself."

Sussams took over the flat's tenancy after Mr. Dickinson's death and immediately claimed housing and council tax benefit.

"There was no suggestion by you that you were living with a civil partner, who was working. Your claim for these benefits was fraudulent from the outset and you failed to declare the highly successful business you were running at the Royal Dart hotel," added the judge.

The jury took just ninety minutes to unanimously convict Sussams of stealing the allowance payments from the London Borough of Croydon between August 28, 2008 and January 13, 2009 and dishonestly making a false statement on or about September 19, 2008 in relation to a housing and council tax benefit claim by failing to declare he was living with his civil partner Evengy Vasin.

He was also convicted of fraud between June 1, 2009 and March 31, this year by dishonestly failing to disclose to Croydon he was the company director of Jireh Investments and Assets and similarly that he was the company director of Kingwear Inns between October 29, 2010 and March 31, this year and Kingswear Inns (Assets) between December 2, 2010 and March 31, this year. 

"This defendant was living in Devon as the landlord of that pub, he was not living in Croydon," prosecutor Miss Nancy Udom told the jury. "The flat he was claiming housing and council tax benefit on was a pied-à-terre in the south-east for Mr. Sussams."

"He had a responsibility to tell the council he was linked to a business in Devon ," added Miss Udom. "This was dishonesty, this was fraudulent.

"He knew that if he told the truth the payments would stop and he chose to be dishonest rather than lose the flat in Croydon."

The jury were told Sussams was the primary carer for Keith Dickinson, the former tenant of the flat in Marston Way, Upper Norwood.

When he died on August 28, 2008 the direct carer's payment continued being made into his bank account and the defendant helped himself to £4,000 the very next day.

"Mr Sussams, as the primary carer, had access to this bank account and would have been aware that very large sums were coming into the bank account.

"This defendant made large withdrawals from the account, some coincided with the payments going in or within a couple of days," explained Miss Udom.

"This was simply stealing. That money should have been left where it was or returned to the council, not withdrawn by Mr. Sussams."

Croydon council invoiced Sussams for the overpayment, but he simply told them all the money had been dispersed in accordance with Mr. Dickinson's will.

Sussams, who was in receipt of incapacity benefit, successfully claimed housing and council tax benefit as a sole occupier, but deliberately failed to tell the council he was sharing the property with his civil partner Evengy Vasin.

"He did not declare his true personal circumstances and failed to declare that he was living with his partner, Mr. Vasin, his civil partner," said Miss Udom. "In fact he went further and told outright lies and claimed he was the sole occupier."

The couple had a civil ceremony on August 8, 2006.

Sussams told a pack of lies to the jury, insisting he thought the allowance payments to Mr. Dickinson were his Stringfellow's pension and that he honestly believed Croydon Council knew he had his own business.

Sussams received a suspended prison sentence in 1978 for deception and theft and three years imprisonment in 1986 for cannabis production.

Croydon will pursue compensation under the Proceeds of Crime Act.