Benefits Bullionaire Hid Secret Gold Reserves During Decade-Long Fraud

Goldfinger of benefit fraud Ronald Cooper, who kept his inheritance, ten bank accounts and £54,000 bullion investment a secret during a decade-long swindle, has avoided prison with a suspended sentence.

The lifelong unemployed 61year-old, who is currently receiving housing benefit and disability living allowance, ripped-off two different London borough's while making repeated claims during the £50,000 fraud.

Cooper, of King Charles House, Wandon Road, Fulham pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court to five counts of dishonestly making false representations in relation to housing benefit and council tax benefit applications and one count in relation to income support between September 10, 2002 and June 1, 2008.

He also pleaded guilty to dishonestly failing to notify a change of circumstances to the Department of Work and Pensions, namely a £25,666 inheritance on or about June 30, 2010.

Prosecutor Mr. Howard Watkinson told the court Cooper was overpaid from 2002 until 2012 - the period his savings exceeded the statutory limit of £16,000 after which claimant's are no longer entitled to benefits.

"This is not a case where the claim was fraudulent from the outset, but three years after it began he had accumulated such savings from benefits he was no longer entitled."

Cooper, who has a council flat, swindled housing benefit payments from both the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. 

"He took a course of deceit involving two local authorities and the Department of Work and Pensions," explained Mr. Watkinson. "This involved dishonest declarations at to the savings he held and the bank accounts. 

"By June, twenty-ten the defendant held some ten bank accounts, some were opened short-term for the savings rate at the time, and at the end of that year he received an inheritance of just over twenty-five thousand pounds.

"By August, twenty-eleven he had just under fifty-four thousand pounds in his various accounts  and converted that sum to an investment in gold bullion."

All of Cooper's financial assets, which now add up to £63,000, have been frozen by a restraining order and the various departments will be reimbursed under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

"He made full and frank admissions to what he had done and agreed in a declaration that he knew what he was doing was wrong and illegal and cheated people who were more deserving than him out of benefits," added Mr. Watkinson.

Cooper's lawyer Mr. Edward Seller told the court: "He is a reclusive and obsessive person, who has never really worked in his life.

"He is worried by some cataclysmic event that has something to do with homelessness and lack of security.

"He lives alone and is worried about what will happen to him."

Judge John Denniss told Cooper: "The gold bullion bought in twenty-eleven was probably a good investment and to avoid detection as many as ten bank accounts were opened.

"The offence is a serious one over many years and displays traits of serious dishonesty.

"Once your savings had mounted up you must have realised you were committing an offence and fifty thousand pounds was taken from the taxpayer.

"This is not a victimless crime, it is a crime against society.

"You are socially isolated and have an obsessive concern or anxiety about some impending cataclysmic event that has compelled you to prepare for that anxiety."

Cooper was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered to complete 100 hours community service.