A VERY enterprising con! Quango worker’s £34k benefits fraud
A CONMAN who claimed £34,000 in benefits while pretending to be jobless was working full-time for a Scottish Government quango, a court heard yesterday.
Alisdair Duff, 51, was working for Scottish Enterprise in Dundee as he carried out the fraud for more than six years.
Wheelchair-bound Duff, who was employed as an administrative assistant, has been given time by a sheriff to pay back the money he claimed in incapacity benefits and employment support allowance.
However, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis warned Duff he risked being jailed if he fails to pay an additional fine of more than £10,000.
Duff, of Longforgan, Perthshire, admitted fraudulently obtaining £34,000 from the Department for Work and Pensions between January 1, 2011 and July 20, 2017. He admitted failing to tell the agency about a change in his circumstances when he was claiming benefits despite working full-time.
Solicitor David Holmes, defending, asked for Duff not to be sent to prison because of the difficulty posed in looking after him in a custodial setting.
He said: ‘There are difficulties in dealing with a person on 16 different medications in custody. If he is in custody he is a problem because of the extent of his difficulties. The intention is for the money to be found through his family and for him to repay it.’
Sheriff Foulis said: ‘Paying back the sum only takes us back to where we should have been before Mr Duff began engaging in a six-and-a-half year period of dishonesty.
‘That is a restitution matter but does not address the criminality, so where do we go from there? The guidelines are quite clear. So if one does not impose custody then it seems to me the only feasible and realistic alternative is the imposition of a financial penalty.
‘But that financial penalty has to be very significant in my humble opinion, and one is talking about a figure of at least five figures.’
The sheriff added: ‘I want the money repaid,’ and said he did not plan to give Duff a long period to pay back the stolen cash or any fine imposed.
Sheriff Foulis deferred sentence to allow Duff to pay back the fraudulent cash and to tell the court how he planned to pay a fine.
Duff was granted bail and will be sentenced in October.
The court was not given any information about Duff’s current employment status.