Living The Thai Life: Expat Sentenced For £66K Benefits Scam

A Thai expat, whose life in the sun with a younger girlfriend was funded by an audacious near decade-long £66,000 benefits fraud, has been sentenced.

Former mini-cab driver Joseph Peter Marcel Fougere, 75, rented out his council flat to two pals while also claiming housing benefit for it on top of pension credit and council tax benefit.

All three rotated lengthy trips to the Far East - keeping an eye out for letters from the council and the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) - until a tip-off ruined the scam.

Speaking outside Croydon Crown Court Fougere revealed his trips to Thailand, where he lived on the coast and in small villages, were over and he now faces eviction.

Fougere pleaded guilty to dishonestly failing to notify a change of circumstances to the DWP between January 25, 2010 and February 10, 2019, namely that he was living in Thailand and sub-letting his home.

He also similarly pleaded guilty to failing to notify the DWP between August 22, 2011 and March 31, 2013 relating to council tax benefit and between April 1, 2011 and February 3, 2019 relating to housing benefit.

Prosecutor Len Furlong told the court Fougere was awarded the large one-bedroom flat in Thorpe Close, New Addington in August, 2011 and began renting it out two months later.

He swindled £39,893 in housing benefit; £24,990 in pension credit and £1,368 in council tax benefit.

“The benefit claims started off as genuine, but rapidly became fraudulent,” explained Mr Furlong.

One pal continued renting for six years, paying Fougere £80 a week - £57 more than the council rate, which the defendant was receiving housing benefit for anyway.

“He would go off and spend nine months of the year in Thailand, where he has friends and for a long time a girlfriend and would come back to the UK for appointments with the benefit agency,” added the prosecutor.

So far, Fougere has repaid £1,181, which has been deducted from his current benefits and the court made no compensation or confiscation order.

“He has got no source of employment or income and his sole source of  money is benefits.

“Plainly he benefited to fund his lifestyle in Thailand and support his living expenses and whatever he did in Thailand.

“There was a certain sophistication to these offences. They were not spontaneous and he has entered into these tenancy agreements over a lengthy period of time,” said Mr Furlong.

Fougere’s lawyer John Livingstone told the court: “Unfortunately he gets to the ripe old age of seventy-five and finds himself at the wrong end of the criminal justice system.

“He was flying to Thailand and coming back to the UK from time to time.

“He is currently in the premises, but has been told he will be moved when the pandemic is over.

“The council will have to rehouse him at some point.”

Outside Fougere said: “I won’t get a place as good as this again, I’ll probably end up in a hostel.

“I would live in the big lounge and my two friends would share the bedroom and just work mini-cabbing to make money for their next trip to Thailand.

“I won’t be going back there, I haven’t got any money.”

Recorder Richard Smith sentenced Fougere to ten months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

“You failed to report you were no longer habitually living in the UK and were abroad, lying to the council to fund your lifestyle in Thailand,” he told him.

“An aggravating feature is the long periods of your claims, one of them lasting nine years.

“Due to your age, good character and low risk of re-offending I will suspend the sentence and I do not impose any other requirements.

“Please let us not see you again.”