£40,000 BENEFITS CHEAT FREED

A BENEFITS cheat who stole nearly £40,000 from taxpayers was spared jail – because it would cost the same amount to lock him up for a year.

According to sentencing guidelines, Somalian immigrant Karmal Mustafa should have been jailed for at least 15 months.

But although Judge Carol Hagen said he deserved to go to prison, he walked free after she decided not to land taxpayers with the bill.

She told a court it cost £39,000 to keep a man in prison for a year, adding: ‘Do I wish to burden the state further with another £38,000 to £40,000, much as I think it is deserved?’ She gave Mustafa a 24week suspended sentence and ordered him to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work. He must also pay £250 in costs.

Mustafa, 29, of Bristol, who pleaded guilty to benefit fraud, was given a total of £38,856.50 over seven years in income support, council tax and housing benefit despite being employed.

Bristol Crown Court was told that Mustafa used the cash to fund two families – one in the city and another in Somalia. ‘he could turn the clock back’. Zadran, of Rotherhithe, South-East London, was ordered to pay £2,000 to the owner of the car, and required to attend mental health treatment. Other rioters have received immediate imprisonment.

Since Mr Grayling took over from Kenneth Clarke at the Justice Department last week, he has been left in no doubt of the challenges he faces getting a grip on the soft justice system.

Last week Judge Peter Bowers provoked an outcry when he told a burglar: ‘It takes a huge amount of courage, as far as I can see, for somebody to burgle somebody’s house. I wouldn’t have the nerve.’

Tory MP Priti Patel said of the Zadran verdict: ‘Cases like this do little to restore public confidence in the criminal justice system and it is about time that criminals were treated like criminals.’