Benefit Fraudster Wins Freedom

Freed: Croydon Crown Court

A council-funded carer, jailed for claiming nearly £10,000 for looking after her father when he was visiting his native Somalia, has been freed on appeal after a court ruled prison Covid conditions resulted in too harsh a sentence. 

Suban Hashi, 35, submitted time sheets on six separate occasions while her dad was out of the country during the four-year fraud, Croydon Crown Court heard.

The Royal Borough of Greenwich prosecuted Hashi, of
Charles Grinling Walk, Woolwich, who they paid to look after her father when he suffered a stroke.

She is also the £500 per-month paid carer of her sister, who has Down’s Syndrome and she received approximately £20,000 in legitimate care payments for looking after her father when he was in the UK.

Hashi pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud by false representation, namely providing false information on care time sheets between March 1, 2014 and August 28, 2017.

She also pleaded guilty to one count of dishonestly failing to disclose information between May 15 and August 11, 2018, namely that she had not provided personal care to her father.

Last February Bromley Magistrates Court sentenced her to twelve months immediate imprisonment, but on appeal to Croydon Crown Court this period was suspended for eighteen months and Hashi was released.

Recorder Joshua Swirsky, sitting with two JP’s, announced: “It is clear the magistrates were taking the starting point from the sentencing guidelines, deducted half and crafted the sentence accordingly.

“We agree that was a permissible amount and the sentence of twelve months was the correct sentence to reflect the seriousness of the offending.

“They could not have considered the effect of an immediate custodial sentence during Covid, resulting in individuals being locked-up for twenty-three-and-a-half hours per day.

“We think it is right in our judgement, given the effect jail is likely to have on an individual that is of good character and has pleaded guilty, that sentence ought to be suspended.

“She has served the equivalent of a four month prison sentence and given the time she has been in custody we do not impose any other conditions.”

Ordering Hashi to repay the £9,712 she defrauded the council of at the rate of £10 per fortnight the Recorder added: “This was public money that was taken out of the Adult Social Care budget, which is under a great deal of pressure do to local government cuts in spending, plus the pressures of the pandemic.

“There is no reason the full sum should not be repayable.

“This lady has no income and she is in custody and will have to contribute to the compensation from limited means.”

 

Royal Borough of Greenwich prosecutor Catherine Rose told the appeal: “She was employed by her father for personal care and received payments from the council after submitting time sheets.

“She claimed a large number of hours over four years when her father was abroad and when she clearly was not caring for him because he was outside the UK.”

The appeal dismissed the council’s application for £7,416 in costs for bringing the prosecution, due to Hashi’s limited means.

Her lawyer Chris Whitehouse told the appeal: “She has served the equivalent of four months imprisonment in conditions that are so much more different due to the pandemic.

“She is a single lady from a relatively large family with sisters and brothers, including a seventeen year-old sister with Down’s Syndrome, who she is the carer for.

“Her computing college course ceased in 2010 and she has not been working since, picking-up the responsibilities of the family.

“She has found the time in custody particularly difficult, confined to her cell twenty-three hours a day with half-an-hour exercise in the morning and half-an-hour in the evening for showering.

“She has no income or savings and neither do have members of her family,” added Mr Whitehouse, confirming Hashi will immediately claim Universal Credit on release.

“She has no income apart from the potential to claim benefits.”

Hashi was caught when Greenwich Council tried to arrange a meeting with her father on multiple occasions in 2018 and were told he was in Somalia.

An investigation revealed he was abroad for a total of nearly two years while the care claims continued to be made by his daughter.