Pensioner jailed over benefits advice from man he ‘met in a pub’.

fraud: 67-year-old claimed more than £15,000 in benefits over five years

A Fife pensioner has been jailed for benefits fraud after claiming he had been wrongly advised about filling in forms by a man he met in his local pub.

Thomas Barnes obtained more than £15,000 in benefits to which he was not entitled over a period of more than five years by twice denying he received a mining pension.

Barnes, 67, of Murray Knowe, Cardenden, was found guilty after a trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court last month.

He returned to court for sentencing and was jailed for nine months by Sheriff Charles MacNair.

He had denied between April 27 2009 and December 21 2014 knowingly making a false statement to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on an application for pension credit by stating he was not in receipt of an occupational pension while receiving a pension from the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme, and thereby obtaining £13,042.24 to which he was not entitled.

He also denied between May 5 2014 and January 4 2015 knowingly making a false statement to Fife Council officials on housing benefit and council tax applications to receive £2,420.42 to which he was not entitled.

Barnes told the court he had been a miner for around 13 years before he was “pensioned out” because of chest problems in 1979.

At the start of 1980 he began receiving a mining pension, which has continued since.

He said in 2009 he “didn’t have a clue” how to fill in forms for Pension Credit and was helped by a man who was a regular in the local pub in which he drank.

This man, who has since died, told him not to declare his mining pension saying: “That’s your money”.

Later in his evidence Barnes changed his story admitting the form was not filled in by the man in the pub but by a DWP staff member at Cowdenbeath in his presence.

However, in her closing submission defence solicitor Elaine Buist said her client had been “acting in good faith” after taking advice on how to fill in the form.

Sheriff Charles MacNair told Barnes it had been a “straightforward” question whether he was receiving a pension from a former employer.

He added: “It was reckless in the extreme to take the advice of a man you met in a pub rather than the staff of the Department for Work and Pensions.

“It may be that you thought you would get away with it.”

Itwas reckless in theextreme to take the advice of a man you met inapub rather than the staff of the Department for Work and Pensions. SHERIFF CHARLES MACNAIR