Welfare-to-work company employees to be sentenced for fraudulent claims | UK news | T

[Legal Beagles]

Sentencing has begun for 10 employees of a recruitment company that aimed to get people back into work who fraudulently claimed nearly £300,000 from taxpayers. The staff members worked for Action 4 Employment (A4e), which was contracted by the government to help people from difficult backgrounds gain the necessary training and skills. They made up... Read more »
Read More -> Welfare-to-work company employees to be sentenced for fraudulent claims | UK news | The Guardian


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[Kati]

Re: Welfare-to-work company employees to be sentenced for fraudulent claims | UK news

And this is what happens when a private company gets paid £100s for every 'success story' :tinysmile_hmm_t2:

The staff members worked for Action 4 Employment (A4e), which was contracted by the government to help people from difficult backgrounds gain the necessary training and skills.They made up scores of files, forged signatures and falsely claimed they had helped people find jobs, enabling them to hit targets and get bonuses.
Some even falsified documents, using the names of family members, while others offered bribes in the form of vouchers to get people to fill out bogus forms.

They should be jailed and these so-called "back to work" contracts suspended until the Government can be sure it is not (and will not be) happening within the other companies!!

[MissFM]

Re: Welfare-to-work company employees to be sentenced for fraudulent claims | UK news

Makes your heart sink, doesn't it? The final destination of all decent government and charitable initiatives - some crook's back pocket.

[Kati]

Re: Welfare-to-work company employees to be sentenced for fraudulent claims | UK news

It wouldn't be that bad if these courses were 'given' to those that actually needed the help and support. The Godson of my partner was sent on one with a company called Ingeus ... this would have been OK, except for the fact that this man had written the course that the company were making him do!! My partner (while unemployed) was sent on two different courses within three months of each other to help him 'learn computer skills' and 'write a CV' ... at both of these, he was told he was overqualified and didn't need to be there. One of the providers even went on to say that they learnt more from my partner than he (OH) woild have ever 'learnt' from the course in question.

[Kati]

Re: Welfare-to-work company employees to be sentenced for fraudulent claims | UK news

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-15-years.html

Government back-to-work contractors who forged signatures to con taxpayers out of £300,000 jailed for total of 15 years

• Ten workers from employment firm A4e found guilty of large-scale fraud
• Forged signatures, time sheets and employers' details to claim bonuses
• They were working on Government's contract to help jobseekers get work
• Reading Crown Court heard they claimed nearly £288,595 from taxpayers
• Judge Angela Morris sentenced group of 10 workers to a total of 15 years
• A4e was founded by the PM's former 'back to work Tsar' Emma Harrison

A4e recruiter Julie Grimes, 52, from Staines, Surrey, who was jailed for 26 months, was put under huge pressure to meet unrealistic targets by managers who did not care how she met them, the court heard.Her barrister Steven Pidcock said: ‘She was immersed in a culture of dishonesty that she didn’t have the moral fibre to resist.
‘It doesn’t start from the roots - this sort of thing starts from the top of the tree.’

Dean Lloyd, 38, of Milton Keynes, who received a 15-month sentence, had no idea about the ‘dishonesty intrinsic in A4e’ until after he had accepted the job, the hearing was told.
His lawyer Rhodri James said: ‘To some extent it almost seemed acceptable because those who worked there, particularly in the hierarchy, were so entrenched in their dishonest practices.’

Contract manager Ines Cano-Uribe, 39, of Madrid, was jailed for 18 months, while Charles McDonald, 44, of Egham, Surrey, who faked documents to get bonuses to support his drug habit, received a sentence of 40 months.


There was also a prison term of 22 months for Nikki Foster, 31, of Reading, and one of 15 months for Bindiya Dholiwar, 29, of Slough.

Suspended 12-month sentences were given to Zabar Khalil, 35, of Slough, Matthew Hannigan-Train, 31, of Bristol, and Hayley Wilson, 27, of Milton Keynes. Aditi Singh, 32, of Slough received a ten-month suspended sentence.

Cano-Uribe, Khalil, Hannigan-Train and Hayley Wilson had denied forgery, but were found guilty by a jury after a trial that lasted for 12 weeks. The other six pleaded guilty.