Orton/Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy/Thurnell Saints and Scroungers

Here in the UK we're lucky to have things like transport networks,

legal aid, and free health care.

We are very lucky to have an NHS system

because a lot of other countries have to pay for it.

Benefits should go to people who are in need.

These services are mostly paid for by us, the taxpayer,

and on the whole, we don't mind.

But what happens when someone tries to steal from the system?

If they've stolen it, they know they've taken it.

They know they're running a risk, so if they get caught it's a fair cop.

Well, it's outrageous, disgusting, and needs to be dealt with.

With the economy as tough as it is, it's more important than ever

that those who nick from the system don't get away with it,

and those who need help get it.

This is the world of Saints and Scroungers.

Coming up on today's show...

the scroungers out to beat the system.

A woman who fraudulently claimed Widowed Mother's Allowance

by trying to pass off her live-in partner as a lodger.

I think it would be stretching the bounds of credibility

to assume a commercial lodging arrangement

where the lodger hasn't paid anything for 14 years.

And those in need of support.

We meet the young man whose life was ruined by bullies

till he was given a helping hand by no-one less than Dame Kelly Holmes.

You could see straight away that he had lack of confidence

in his own, you know, self-worth, almost.

Being a widowed mother is a tragic situation to find yourself in.

And as if losing your partner isn't enough to deal with,

you've still got the children to look after, and bills to pay.

But you're not alone. There is Government support out there for widows,

and surely no-one busy grieving is also thinking about thieving...

Meet Dawn-Marie Oughton. This 48-year-old from Yorkshire

was left a single mother of two when her husband died in 1996.

So why, some 17 years later, did she find herself behind prison bars?

Oughton was entitled to Child Benefit for her two young children,

and topped up her income with incapacity benefit,

which she was entitled to because of a shoulder injury.

But after she lost her husband the Department for Work and Pensions

advised her to claim Widowed Mother's Allowance instead.

It gave Oughton more income to help her through the tough times.

Widowed Mother's Allowance is paid to widows

with children of the marriage,

providing they're in receipt of Child Benefit

and the late husband satisfied the National Insurance contributions.

Because the Widowed Mother's Allowance is paid at a higher rate,

and is non-taxable

it would be more beneficial for her to receive the Widowed Mother's Allowance.

Nothing wrong with that. Oughton claimed the benefit that gave her more income to care for her children.

Who wouldn't, and presumably she'd be entitled to claim the allowance

for many years to come.

She would have received an information leaflet at the time of the claim,

and the main issue in regard the change in circumstances

would be if she started to live together as husband and wife with a man.

OK, so as long as Oughton was living alone with her children

there'd be no issue.

So why, in 2010, were there not one, but five anonymous phone calls

to the Benefit Fraud Hotline making allegations about her?

Hull's Department for Work and Pensions were on the case,

and Unit Fraud investigator Arthur Hansford

explains what happened next.

Each allegation...

..suggested that Mrs Oughton was living with a partner,

which obviously, as she was in receipt of Widowed Mother's Allowance

would mean that she'd be no longer entitled to that benefit.

IF the allegation was true.

An allegation is purely just an allegation.

We do receive some malicious allegations

where people obviously have an axe to grind against someone.

So the investigators are trained to try and establish

what the full facts of the circumstances of the claimant is.

And the investigator's first job was to do the obvious thing -

visit Oughton's home to see who was living there.

On the 31st of August, we paid a visit to Oughton's home,

really expecting her not to be present.

However, after we knocked on the door

the alleged partner answered the door,

and invited us into the house.

Mrs Oughton was actually in the house

doing some washing.

So we indentified that there may be some truth in the allegation.

We did need to investigate further, so we invited

Mrs Oughton to attend the office on the 14th of September

for an interview under caution.

What we did perceive whilst we were in the house

was that the atmosphere didn't appear to be particularly amenable.

There seemed to be some sort of frosty atmosphere in the house,

but obviously we couldn't comment on that, and we then left

to wait until the interview under caution.

On the allotted day, Dawn Oughton did the right thing,

and turned up as expected for interview.

During the interview, she admitted knowing

that she must report any change in her circumstances

because she was in receipt of Widowed Mother's Allowance.

particularly if she lived together as husband and wife with a man.

However, she insisted that the alleged partner was purely a lodger,

although she did admit that he paid no set amount,

he didn't pay much at all.

She denied supporting him, and also denied

that they were living together as husband and wife.

She admitted during the interview that they did socialise together.

They did play badminton together, they went out for meals.

They were walking down the street... She did say that at times they did walk arm in arm.

But again said that he was a lodger,

and they were not living together as husband and wife.

Throughout the interview she was quite calm, and cool and collected.

So perhaps the allegations against her WERE wrong.

Oughton was freely admitting

that the man lived at her house, so the only discrepancy

was over any money changing hands.

But if the allegations were true,

then she had potentially been claiming Widowed Mother's Allowance for up to 14 years

totalling a rather handsome...

The investigators had to be sure they were getting to the truth.

When looking at potential overpayments in the tens of thousands

checking suspects' finances can be crucial.

Jackie Raja is head of the DWP's Financial Investigation Unit.

The earlier we get involved in the case the better.

Once the criminal investigator realises that we might be dealing with somebody who's got property

then they'll ask the FIU to get involved,

because what we will do is we'll work in parallel.

We'll start to do some intelligence gathering about somebody's finances.

If there's a lot of money involved, then we can restrain that money

to stop it being squirreled away, or sent abroad

where people think we can't get hold of it.

The Hull investigators were now looking at both the money and lifestyle

of Oughton and her alleged partner,

and they started weighing up the evidence.

I think it would be stretching the bounds of credibility

to assume a commercial lodging arrangement

where the lodger hasn't paid anything for 14 years.

You know, perhaps Arthur has a point...

By then the plot was thickening quite considerably.

The day after the interview under caution,

Mrs Oughton contacted the investigator

and said she was going to go out for a meal

with the alleged partner, and wanted the investigator to know that.

And look, would it make any difference, and was she allowed to go out for the meal?

Oughton called up the DWP asking what she can and can't do with her lodger,

and wrote them a letter making it very clear

that is all he was - a long-term lodger.

Maybe it was a slap-up meal to say thanks

for letting him stay rent-free for the last 14 years.

Whatever the investigators thought was going on,

they were about to be led in a completely new direction.

They'd heard that Oughton had taken to visiting a male friend in America,

and wanted to see her passport

to see how long she was spending outside the UK

because it might affect her benefit claim.

And would you believe it -

as soon as this new male friend arrived on the scene

Oughton's alleged partner was very keen to talk to the investigators.

It was the 5th of October

that the alleged partner actually contacted the Department,

contacted the investigator, and wanted to know...

..if he was going to be interviewed, and actually asked...

he requested for himself to be interviewed under caution.

So...

again, we looked at our diaries,

and we arranged an interview under caution for the 3rd of November.

So the alleged partner actually WANTED to be interviewed.

Interesting.

We do, in normal course of events, interview alleged partners,

and see what their version of events are,

but for an alleged partner actually to come out and request an interview

is unusual.

We'll find out later what he had to say

when he met with the investigators.

Time now to turn our back on those money-pinching scroungers

who do all they can to cheat us out of our hard-earned wages,

and give our full attention to the saints -

members of society who dedicate their lives to helping those

in desperate need of help, but who don't know how to ask for it.

There's a commonly-held opinion that a bit of bullying at school

does no harm at all.

It is in fact character-building.

Well, that's nonsense, because the negative effects of bullying

can last well past your school days,

and can put a serious dent in your prospects.

There's no need to spell that out for 25-year-old Andy Lunnon from Reading

who endured years of name calling and isolation at school,

partly due to a condition which meant he had a squint in one eye.

I looked different from the normal.

It meant that I had to wear corrective glasses,

where sadly the glass was quite thick,

so you can imagine, I have an eye condition,

and I'm wearing these so-called corrective glasses,

but the glasses drew more attention to me.

I was sad that, you know,

my life had got to the stage where I had nothing to aim for.

The constant bullying meant that Andy found it hard to concentrate in lessons,

and he ended up leaving without any qualifications

or plans for his future.

It wasn't surprising, then, that he quickly became

one of the country's one million young people

who are unemployed, and not studying or training.

I was just lost. I think that's the best way I could describe it.

Andy was living at home with his mum.

For two years he had no option but to claim Jobseeker's Allowance.

During that time he began to comfort eat,

and isolate himself by hiding away in his bedroom

playing computer games.

Andy's now 25. His school years took their toll,

and I've come to find out what lasting effects the bullying has had on him.

-School was there to be endured rather than enjoyed.

-Yeah.

But then, at the end of school

you've got your opportunity to be yourself, and to get out there,

and prove who you really were.

Having seen some of the other people from my school move on into either college or a working career

I found that kind of my lack of confidence turned to depression,

but I was also quite embarrassed because I'd fallen behind everybody,

and actually, that almost sent me over the edge.

So, when you say you were close to the edge,

what do you mean?

To be honest with you, Matt, I was contemplating suicide.

You've reached a crisis point, effectively.

-Yeah.

-What happened next?

My mother came in, and you know, gave me a cuddle,

and asked me what was on my mind.

What did you say to your mum?

I just said, "I want to change who I am now.

"I want to become a different person."

And it's a sadly familiar tale. One in five young people in the UK

are described as NEAT - not in employment, education or training.

It's a huge weight for the whole country.

After two long years of unemployment, and claiming Jobseeker's Allowance,

one day at the Job Centre

Andy heard about a scheme that got his attention.

I heard an adviser next to my one talk about Kelly Holmes,

and so there was a leaflet on the table.

And I took this leaflet.

I found out that Kelly Holmes was going to come to a local gymnasium near me.

The event was being run by the Dame Kelly Holmes' Legacy Trust,

and their aim was to sign up young people not in education, employment or training

onto a development course.

Double Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes had set it up in 2008

inspired by hardships of her own she'd suffered in younger years.

From a disadvantaged background, she was taken into care several times

when her single teenage mum struggled to cope.

After an Army career, she turned to athletics,

but her natural talent was hampered by scores of injuries and operations.

But none of this stopped her winning two gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

I believe that every young person

needs a hero, or somebody to give them guidance.

The charity, basically, is for disadvantaged young people.

We utilise the skills and expertise of sporting champions,

and through the journey that they've taken,

they are able to communicate with young people really effectively

about what it takes to be good,

and you get that instant engagement with somebody

that has been there and done it.

Andy summoned up the courage to go along to the event.

We had an athlete there called Adam Whitehead,

and he spoke so confidently about how his school life

was really, really difficult.

He'd struggled with dyslexia. His story and mine had so many parallels

that I just felt like I could approach him and talk to him,

and kind of ask him how he managed to do so well.

Former Olympian, European and Commonwealth swimming champion

Adam Whitehead represented Great Britain for ten years.

He won six medals including gold for the 100m breaststroke

in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

I went home with a smile on my face.

My mum was like, "What's changed inside you?"

I said, "I've just met probably one of the most inspirational people I've ever met in my entire life."

Adam also remembers the first day of that programme very clearly.

First time you met Andy, tell me about it.

What did you meet?

First day of any programme we stand quite near the entrance

because we do get young people, they want to make that step,

but they haven't quite the courage to do so.

He was hovering around outside, and I remember sort of...almost asking him to come in.

And then once we got him in it was great, because he stayed.

He was quite overweight at the time.

You could see straight away

that he had lack of confidence in his own self-worth, almost.

Andy's weight issue seemed to be one of the main reasons for his low self-esteem.

At school I was about 7st, if that,

and by the time I'd met Dame Kelly and Adam

I was about 15 and a half stone.

Despite his own issues with his weight and his lack of confidence,

Andy came back the next day, and the next.

In fact, he didn't miss a single day of the six-week programme.

Chief Executive Officer Julie Whelan

believes the programme gives young people vital skills for life,

and the job market.

During the period of the Get On Track programme

young people are asked to take more personal responsibility,

commit, think about their communication skills,

think about how they work together as a team,

and start to think about what they want to do with their life.

I was excited, you know. I had something to look forward to.

I was so determined to make the most of the opportunity I had.

What was it that you saw emerging in Andy?

By day three or day four, me and Andy had built a really good relationship.

He was starting to open up about

the things that had happened in the past,

but also, you know, his aspirations for the future.

Inspired by Adam, Andy decided to train as a fitness instructor,

and signed up for a fast-track course.

Before long, he was getting work,

and the days of claiming Jobseeker's Allowance were finally over.

So things are going well for you at work,

and you've found the career that you're looking for.

But it's not all plain sailing. What happens next?

I started to feel ill.

And at first I wasn't too sure what was wrong with me.

I started to develop quite bad headaches

to the extent where I couldn't go to work.

Over time it got more serious, and I started to have nosebleeds.

And it just ended up being a really serious situation where I had to go and see my doctor.

-What did the doctor say?

-They weren't too sure what it was.

So we had a period where I had to wait at home for a diagnosis.

It was diagnosed as a tumour,

and that's quite scary in itself.

The tumour was behind Andy's right eye.

His consultant told him not to work at all

until he'd had an operation to remove it.

So, suddenly you get this diagnosis.

What effect did that have?

It was really difficult

because the temptation to kind of go back into my own bubble

and isolate myself was there.

But I had the support unit, I had the Trust.

I've got dozens of friends out there to support you,

and actually, in a situation like this,

having people around you is probably more important than anything else.

Thankfully, by the time the operation came around

Andy had been told that the tumour was benign,

but the surgery itself was an ordeal, and he had to take things slowly

until he fully recovered.

We didn't hear anything, and then I got this most bizarre e-mail.

And up popped Andy's two eyes in the e-mail - the pictures.

He said, "I have good news."

Not only was the tumour removed.

Andy's sight was fine, and the cherry on the cake

was during the operation, the surgeon decided to help solve another problem.

There was an opportunity, when he was having the operation,

to actually sort out something that Andy had been bullied about -

that squint that he's lived with ever since he's been a young lad.

That was sorted out too.

So having been through a situation where...

you know, you must have felt at times,

-"What does the future hold for me?"

-Yes.

-You found out the truth.

It's been dealt with.

You must be feeling, "I've got to get back to work."

Yeah, and that was my first instinct.

The minute I kind of had my good news,

and my bandages taken off, it was,

"OK, now that I've been at the fitness industry for a little while

"is there an entry into there, or do I have to look at something else?"

During my time out, I was lucky enough to volunteer with the Trust.

But I wanted to reach out to young people in my position

so that if a situation like my situation ever presented itself

to a young person, I could be there as a support unit for them, and help to get them through it.

And the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust came up trumps again.

They had a contract for a young mentor

to work on their Keep On Track programme

which gives young people extra help

after they've finished their initial course.

During my operation

Dame Kelly and her CEO had been in close contact with me all the time,

and after recovering from the operation

the CEO came to meet me in Reading.

The Trust had decided that, because of what happened to me,

it was really out of my hands, and they wanted to offer me the chance to come and work for the Trust,

and do something with their young people

using my own story as an inspiration.

Andy aced the interview. The Trust was convinced

he had exactly the right experience to be a young person's mentor

to help them get fit and motivated in body and mind

so they can fulfil their true potential.

I get a real buzz out of seeing someone who maybe before

didn't believe in themselves,

a couple of months on doing something fantastic.

He has done so well,

and the young people who are now coming through the programmes,

they respond to him because, when they're low,

or when things feel tough, they look at him and realise

he actually has had to go through hurdle after hurdle after hurdle,

but he's taken personal responsibility.

If Andy can do it, you know, others can do it.

What Julie has done for me

has been my pillar of support.

She's acted almost like a mother would with her son

in the way that she has gone above and beyond

to continue to support me.

Andy is one of the most amazing characters that I've ever met.

He has transformed his own life.

I have seen him grow from an unconfident,

low in self-esteem young boy

to a man with purpose who I believe has a bright future ahead of him.

Time now to move away from our saints

and return to the greedy world of our scroungers.

In Hull, mother-of-two Dawn Oughton had been claiming to be a single widow since 1996,

and as such, was entitled to Widowed Mother's Allowance.

But in the summer of 2010,

she was accused of having a long-term live-in male partner,

making her claim potentially fraudulent.

Despite five anonymous tip-offs being made about her,

Oughton denied the relationship,

and claimed the man was her non-rent-paying lodger

who just happened to have been living with her for 14 years.

All five allegations were saying basically the same thing,

that Mrs Oughton was living together as husband and wife with a man.

But then another man came on the scene.

Someone Oughton had taken to visiting in America.

It was this man who called the investigators to say

that the lodger had been asked to leave.

It seemed that Oughton and her housemate were no longer on friendly terms.

But who was this phone informant?

Well, it turned out to be an old school friend of Dawn Oughton,

and by the time she visited the investigator's office for the second time

she brought her passport and her American pal with her.

What we wanted to look at was her absences in America

while she was in receipt of the Widowed Mother's Allowance

in case the absences impacted on her receiving the benefit

and entitlement.

What we discovered was that

it didn't affect her benefit at all at that time.

But of course, during the examination of the passport

what we discovered was that the emergency contact

was the alleged partner.

And she also mentioned during her visit to the office

that she intended returning to America

with her other friend.

She was possibly going for four weeks.

And it was during this absence that

Oughton's alleged partner/lodger/emergency contact

made his appearance at the Hull offices.

He did call in, and we interviewed him under caution.

Subsequently to that, he produced...

..quite a lot of evidence which tended to support his story

that he was actually in a living together situation with Mrs Oughton.

He produced birthday cards to him

from Mrs Oughton's children, calling him Dad.

There was a Valentine's card to him from Mrs Oughton.

So this was obviously valuable information

towards building a case that would possibly substantiate the fact

that they were living together as husband and wife.

So, at last investigators had evidence that Oughton's lodger

was her actual partner, and had been since 1996.

And what he told them married up to the team's investigation into the couple's finances.

When they'd looked into her accounts,

they found a business in their joint names,

and that the partner paid for the water and Council Tax.

They gave Oughton one last chance to come clean.

It gave her the opportunity to say exactly what she wanted.

But in the end, she was still denying that a living together as husband and wife situation existed.

Enough was enough. The investigators had to move things on,

and they passed the matter on to the decision makers.

The decision that came back was that she was not entitled to the benefit,

and the overpayment was calculated that she owed the Department...

The investigators knew that Oughton owned her house,

and had interests in a shop,

and wanted to use these assets to put back into the public purse

at least some of the money she'd stolen.

When a confiscation order is made,

the individual is given an amount of time to pay that back.

Now, for a lot of people that will mean

that property, or cars, or goods have to be sold

to get that money.

They're given a fairly short timescale. It's usually around three months.

And every day that it's not paid it accrues interest.

There needs to be a deterrent factor that actually crime doesn't pay,

and whatever criminality you're involved in,

if you're going to get money, we will come after you and we will get it back.

But this was Dawn Oughton.

Of course, it was never going to be straightforward.

On the 2nd of January,

everyone convened at Hull Crown Court

for the case to be heard, with the exception of Mrs Oughton

who by then was living in Spain.

Spain?!

Did Oughton really not understand just how much trouble she was in,

or was she just off on one last jolly?

Whatever it was, the courts weren't going to let her absence

delay proceedings any further.

The judge decided that the case would go ahead,

but passed the message to Mrs Oughton

that he would expect her to attend on the 3rd of January.

She didn't turn up on the 3rd,

and she passed a message to the judge that if her attendance was necessary

could you perhaps reconvene the case in Gibraltar?

The judge was not willing to do that,

so the case continued in her absence.

At the end of the trial, the jury found a guilty verdict unanimously.

The sentence was 12 months' imprisonment.

12 months behind bars. Quite a result.

But she couldn't very well do her sentence

when she was off in sunny Spain.

There was already an arrest warrant in issue

because she failed to appear at the start of the trial,

but after the guilty verdict that was returned by the jury,

he issued a European-wide arrest warrant

so that she could be brought back to this country to face her punishment.

Dawn Oughton finally saw sense, and returned to the UK in January 2013.

She was promptly put in prison, and given an extra 28 days

for not attending her trial,

but that wasn't the end of the story.

While Mrs Oughton was in prison,

the financial investigation had continued.

They held a separate hearing

when they made a compensation claim for an additional £9,300

which will have to be repaid in addition to the overpayment of £28,000.

She owes in excess of £37,000.

It's a lot of money, but the good news to the taxpayer

is that in October 2013, she did pay back every single penny.