The benefit cheat with £3m assets

Mar 7 2008 by Graeme Whitfield, The Journal

A PROPERTY magnate with £3m in assets was convicted of benefits fraud yesterday.

According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), William Collard owned houses worth more than £3m and drove a £32,000 Jaguar.

But the 38-year-old was paid income support for nine months before DWP officials uncovered the fraud, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

Yesterday he admitted making a false statement with a view to obtaining income support by failing to disclose full and accurate details of assets.

Collard, who has already repaid the money he dishonestly obtained, was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £2,000 court costs within 28 days.

Collard, of Horsley Banks Cottage, Horsley, Northumberland, had completed a claim form for income support on January 27, 2004, because of a sleep disorder.

“Within that form a couple of questions in particular are asked of Collard,” said Roger Moore, prosecuting, yesterday.

“The first is whether he has any property other than his home he would care to tell the department about and secondly whether he has any sources of income at the time. He was saying he was too ill to work. There is medical evidence within the papers that the defence provided about his medical condition.

“The central issue here is whether or not Mr Collard should have disclosed those assets that he had and he now he accepts he should have done.

“When the department did eventually find out he had a share in at least two or three other properties in the area, which were rented, they re-assessed his entitlement to income support to nil.”

Brian Mark, defending, said medical reports showed that at the time Collard applied for benefit, he suffered from obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. “When he applied for sickness benefit, there was a genuine problem,” Mr Mark said.

“It is ongoing, but he is a good deal better.”

Imposing a two-year conditional discharge and £2,000 costs, Judge David Hodson warned Collard: “If you commit any further offence during the next two years, you are liable to be dealt with for this.”

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Fraudster lied and said he had no income

THE Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) yesterday released background information showing that the case of William Collard first came to light in 2004.

Since December 2003, he claimed income support for himself, his partner Grace Elliott, 41, and their two children on the basis he had no income, capital or assets.

He claimed benefit on the basis that he was unfit to work and did not have capital assets worth more than £8,000.

A joint investigation with Tynedale Council revealed Mr Collard owned property worth nearly £3.1m as well as receiving £140,000 in rental income from two properties.

When making his claim for income support, in reply to questions about savings and property, Collard stated that he had no savings and that apart from his home, neither he nor his partner owned or had a share in property. He also claimed he did not receive any rental income.

The DWP said evidence had shown Ms Elliott owned property in Forest Hill, London.

Collard received payments in housing benefit of £62.12 a week as landlord of a property in Dumpling Hall, Newcastle, from November 2003 to June 2004. The DWP also said Collard owned four business units in Scotswood Road, Newcastle, one property in Marsham Close, Dumpling Hall, Newcastle, numbers 1-9 Broadway Road, Denton Burn, and his home, Horsley Banks Cottage, Horsley, Newcastle.

Credit reference checks show in June 2004 he took a credit agreement for £25,000.

The DWP said that was to buy an S-type Jaguar.