Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2011/05/30/benefit_fraudsters/

Rumbled benefits cheats offer sensational excuses

'It wasn't me working, it was my identical twin'

By Lester Haines

Posted in Bootnotes, 30th May 2011 08:12 GMT

Government ministers have revealed a top ten list of improbable and entertaining excuses offered by rumbled benefits cheats, including the defence of one perp who insisted: "It wasn't me working, it was my identical twin."

Another brilliantly claimed: "I wasn't aware my wife was working because her hours of work coincided with the times I spent in the garden shed."

The most improbable example provided by fraud inspectors was from the chap who allegedly said: "I had no idea my wife was working! I never noticed her leaving the house twice a day in a fluorescent jacket and a Stop Children sign."

The other unlikely tales on offer to highlight the £1.6bn annual hit to the taxpayers' wallet by benefits and tax credit fraudsters are:

Lord Freud, Welfare Reform Minister, said: "Benefit fraud is no joke, and yet our investigators are routinely dealing with barefaced cheek and ridiculous excuses for stealing money from the taxpayer." ®