Urquhart/Dorset Blind/Guthrie Saints and Scroungers

In the UK, most of us work hard and pay our taxes.

Most people basically, intrinsically, won't fiddle.

I'm happy I live in a society that has a safety net for the poor.

And we generally agree that it's right

that a proportion of what you earn

should go into a pot that's there to help you should you need it.

But that money doesn't always find its way to the right people.

I think lying to gain the benefit is so wrong.

It's awful!

If you believe in karma it's going to come back round and get you.

There are big changes taking place in the welfare system here in the UK.

And now it's more important than ever

that the right help gets to the right people.

This is a world of saints and scroungers.

'Coming up, the scroungers that are out to beat the system.

A fraudster claiming benefits as a depressed single mum in one London borough

turns out to be a successful landlady in another.'

This was something that told us that there was something more to this lady's character.

And those who rightly deserve a helping hand.

We meet a man whose life falls apart when he loses his sight completely.

At first I didn't really feel like I wanted to go out.

I guess I felt a bit vulnerable and a bit intimidated.

Most of us aspire to own our own home at one point or another.

But the reality is that when you're struggling to make ends meet,

that dream will remain just a dream.

There is Government support available

to make sure there's a roof over you and your family.

However there's a tiny percentage of people, chancers,

who are prepared to exploit that for their own personal gain.

Melissa Urquhart from Croydon in South London

is a young woman trying to make her way in life.

But in 2001 her world came crashing down following the death of her father.

She became depressed and too ill to work, but thankfully she could rely on the Government

and Croydon Council for support.

Melissa Urquhart started claiming housing and council tax benefits in early 2002.

Her claim was based on her being in receipt of job seekers' allowance.

What we noticed on the application form when viewing it was that

she had named her landlord as R's Investment.

She also made it clear to us

that she was grieving and so any delays with her benefit claim being processed

was not helping her stress factor.

It was clearly a difficult time and by 2008

Mellissa Urquhart was in need of even more help.

As the years went by she had a child.

And then she received support as a lone parent.

Over seven years Urquhart received income support,

child support and housing benefit.

She even applied for more money to help with rental increases for her Croydon home.

And despite the various applications throughout the years,

one thing stayed the same.

Throughout the claim period, Melissa Urquhart never declared having any other income

other than state benefit.

So on paper Melissa Urquhart sounded like a depressed single mum

in desperate need of state help.

But in 2009 she sent a letter to the council which raised suspicions among its staff.

'I've come to Croydon fraud HQ to learn more from investigations manager David Hogan.'

OK, so what was it about Urquhart's case

that made you think, "Hold on, maybe here there's something to investigate?"

It was one of the benefit assessment teams here in the council

had received notification from Miss Urquhart

that her landlord's address was changing.

Some basic checks at that point

were made to look at the company,

the address we'd been given,

which was the new address the company had moved to,

and lo and behold, what we found was we found a benefit claim at that address.

Straightaway you've got something that doesn't quite match up

to the paperwork you've been given.

Yeah, we can see we've probably got a problem here.

At that point it was referred through to my team, to the fraud team.

And Urquhart's case landed on the desk of investigator Andrea Cordery.

Her first job was to dig a bit deeper into the landlord,

R's Investments.

Why were they moving to a residential property

where someone was already claiming housing benefit?

OK, so you've immediately got a discrepancy there.

Sometimes these things are just mistakes.

Yes, what the benefit team then did was look into it.

We were able to speak to the person who was at the address

and they'd never heard of the landlord before.

And they showed no connection to that address.

Why she picked this particular address is something we will never know.

In fact the investigators looked for evidence

that Urquhart's landlord, R's Investments,

was actually trading as a company.

But they couldn't find anything on Companies House.

What they did find was some unsettling information.

Urquhart was listed as a director of a dissolved company

which she'd failed to declare to the council.

This was a dramatic change of circumstances.

Over a nine year period the council had spent £74,734.79

supporting a depressed woman who couldn't afford her rent or council tax.

Now there was the chance, potentially, she'd been earning.

A credit search was carried out in her name

which showed us she had connections to other properties.

One of these properties was in Stratford in the borough of Newham.

And that's not all that Andrea uncovered.

The credit reference also highlighted the fact

that she had a number of undeclared bank accounts

and also had a mortgage.

Undeclared bank accounts, a home loan, it's unbelievable!

Here's a single parent who has stated on benefit application forms

that she has no financial assets.

So that's not great.

It turns out she's actually got a live mortgage in her name.

Yeah, that's correct, this obviously raised serious concerns

about the validity of her claim.

OK, so what happens next in a situation like this?

The claim gets passed to the fraud team.

The investigators will then start to look at that claim and go into it in fine detail,

looking for every discrepancy.

We'll find out later whether the investigators get to the bottom of the fraudulent claims.

When we'd done the sums of how much benefit Melissa Urquhart had received,

fraudulently, it was quite startling.

It's now time to turn our backs on the swindling con artists

out to pinch every penny they possibly can.

We're welcoming back our saints,

those people in society who endeavour to help others who desperately need it

but might not know how to get it.

If you've never had any problems with your sight,

it can be all too easy to take it for granted,

so imagine what it's like

to realise that not only is your vision drastically impaired,

but that it's only going to get worse.

That was the daily reality for Steve McCarthy,

who was born with glaucoma,

a condition that left him partially sighted at birth

and could potentially lead to complete blindness.

Fluid that fills into the eye doesn't drain as well as a normal eye

which gives you blurryish vision.

I had pretty good sight until 1984 when I lost the sight in my right eye,

through someone throwing a bit of metal that hit me in the eye.

I had a detached retina. They couldn't save it so I lost vision in that eye.

The accident was a devastating blow for Steve,

who was learning to live with his glaucoma as a child.

I did go to school in Exeter which catered for people with vision impairment.

And Steve's mum Val was always on hand to give her son the love and support he needed.

Steve's always been very good really.

He would get on with most things.

He was full of beans and a happy little boy.

But when Steve turned 39 years old his condition deteriorated rapidly

and his fear for his other eye became a reality.

For many years I thought there could be a possibility of me losing my sight

and that really did sort of scare me.

A detached retina is one of the results of glaucoma

and in 2006 and I had a detached retina in my left eye.

And so my present vision is I don't really have any.

It was clear to Steve's family that he was really struggling.

You can never prepare yourself for it

but he knew it was coming.

And it made him quite depressed.

When I could see I was confident and I wasn't intimidated

but then when I lost my sight

I felt vulnerable because I couldn't see what was going on around me.

It also became clear to Steve's family the council block he was living in was dangerous.

As time went on, I became quite worried about it.

Downstairs there was drugs being dealt there. And prostitutes.

If anything kicked off, Steve not being able to see

made it quite frightening.

Desperate to move out to somewhere more suitable,

Steve tried to get the ball rolling but found it a complex challenge,

especially for someone who'd just become blind.

I didn't really know

how to go about getting help with benefits or anything like that.

Steve was frightened, a long way from the support of his family and he felt socially isolated.

But the optimistic fighting spirit he'd had since childhood

prompted him to reach out to a local charity.

I'd heard about Dorset Blind Association, DBA,

but I'd never thought about looking into it.

But now that Steve had made contact with the charity he was able to discuss his housing situation

with Carol Jenkins, the home visiting coordinator.

They set up a meeting for Carol to visit Steve at his flat

and assess his situation to see if they could help in any way.

Thankfully for Steve, Carol had experience of helping blind people move home.

Obviously there's lots of help that's required.

Looking at the paperwork, how do you apply?

It's not an easy process but it is a process that is very doable.

For someone with a visual impairment, moving, the challenges there are enormous.

When you're moving you have lots of forms to fill in.

That's something that someone with very limited sight needs support and help with.

The way he presented himself to me was quite depressed.

And I just felt that someone like Steve had loads to offer and do.

Moving perhaps nearer to his family and certainly on a bus route

would mean that Steve would start getting out and about.

But the process of getting Steve into a suitable home was far from simple

and Carol worked tirelessly, applying to the local authorities

and liaising with them about finding Steve a new flat.

There's lots of problems in the fact that he is a single man.

So to find a property that is suitable

but it doesn't need to be over big.

Equally we had to look at how the local authority would assist us with a transfer.

Carol had done everything she could to get Steve into a suitable flat

that would allow him to begin rebuilding his life.

All they could do was sit tight and wait for a decision.

I got a letter through the door to say

'a place had become available so would I like to go and see it?

'I looked around it, I was feeling quite positive about it'

because although it was a lot smaller than what I had,

I thought it would be easier to cope with.

I was excited and just waiting for the day I could move in.

When Steve told me he'd got the flat,

well, yeah, I just was really chuffed to bits.

Cos, I mean, nothing's been easy. Just a one-bedroom flat.

Just perfect for him.

It's easier to me to get to places from here.

I have family quite close.

I have a bus stop right outside. And it's just a nicer area.

After 18 months trapped in his flat,

Steve now wanted to move on with his life.

Try to get back into paid work and make new friends.

It was a relief. I felt really good about the whole thing.

And Chris Ford, one of the charity's community support workers,

was perfectly placed to understand Steve's predicament.

Chris is able to give an enormous amount of help and support

and I think a lot of that comes from the fact that he has sight loss.

Without him it'd be a real loss to us.

Through working with Chris, Steve realised they had a lot in common

and it wasn't long before a friendship blossomed.

Steve was in a very similar situation

where he had some sight

but once it actually got to the point where he couldn't see anything,

we were both in the same boat, we both had problems to overcome.

As a mentor, Chris helps Steve feel confident about his financial situation

and supports him through any changes in Government legislation.

The Welfare Reform Act of 2012 meant that the Government only had a bit of money

in the pot to cater for people with disabilities.

'People with sight loss are going to be experiencing changes with earning support allowance.'

And it affects every single one of us.

It's not just his financial situation that Steve has control of.

His social life is thriving too since immersing himself in

the various events and activities that the charity organises.

As a result Steve's now living a far more fulfilling and exciting life.

We are the Dorset Acoustic Shooting Club.

And the concept is being able to provide a shooting facility

for the blind and visually impaired.

We use specially modified 177 air rifles

together with an acoustic sighting system.

We have to convert a picture to sound.

And we do this by means of bouncing a light off of the target,

convert it to a high-pitched sound which is heard through the headphones,

and, assuming the shooter is getting a good tone and a high pitch,

he will hit the target and hopefully score quite well.

When a visually impaired person does things like acoustic shooting,

it gives you a bit of a buzz.

It means your disability doesn't exist. You can forget it for a while.

With the help of Carol and Chris,

Steve's learnt to cope with being blind

and has moved on with his life.

In fact, he began feeling so positive about things that he even gave dating a go.

Pearl is my fiancee now.

We met a couple of years ago in Dorchester when I was a bit lost

and she came and met me and helped me to get where I needed to.

And we found we had a lot in common.

Pearl and I have been going out for two years now.

This year Pearl announced to me that we were going to be having a baby.

So I was... Bit of a shock to start with but I was really excited.

And also it so happened

that I was planning on asking her to marry me anyway.

I'm over the moon.

Not just personally but for Steve, whenever I talk to someone,

I say, "Look, I've got this guy called Steve, look what he's done."

So excited and so is the rest of the family.

It's brilliant. Couldn't be better.

Couldn't be happier. I'd better start knitting I think!

And now a more self-confident Steve is itching to become more financially independent.

My hopes for the future firstly is to get some paid work,

'support my family.

'I've made the first steps into that

'by starting a Pathway course back into work.'

My life has just changed, it's changed tenfold.

And is so much better. I'm feeling so positive about everything.

'I'm determined to make the most of it.'

Try and do all I can to make my family as happy as I can.

It is funny how life works.

If Steve hadn't lost his sight

then the chances are he wouldn't have found his Pearl

and now be facing a wedding and the birth of his first child.

But he'd be the first to admit it's made him who he is.

From the heart warming to the mind boggling.

Yes, it's scrounger time.

Croydon fraud investigators are looking into the case of Melissa Urquhart.

On paper this depressed lone parent

is a deserving recipient of support from the taxpayer.

But it appeared she was withholding information about her assets.

In the case of Melissa Urquhart,

the credit search showed

that she had connections to a number of properties

and also a number of bank accounts that had not been declared.

It also showed that she had a mortgage.

The investigation suggested that this depressed single mum

did indeed have assets,

even though she'd claimed over £70,000 in housing benefits over a nine-year period.

The kind of benefits that Urquhart was claiming. Are they fairly typical?

They are. There has always been fraud

in the area of housing benefit and council tax benefit.

But these are a really important catch net for many of the people in our community.

It's not just people in receipt of income support get housing benefit.

A lot of people on low income receive that as well.

The evidence against Urquhart suggested she was stealing from the council.

So the Croydon investigation team stayed on her tail

in tireless pursuit of more information.

We began to make further enquiries

to find out how she obtained this house in Stratford.

We realised that the property previously was owned by her father.

By the time probate was sorted out,

the property became Melissa's

in February 2003.

Unbelievable! All the time Melissa had been claiming benefits from Croydon Council,

she'd also inherited a Stratford property in the borough of Newham from her father.

The information showed that the property in Stratford was worth over £300,000.

In order for Melissa to have the mortgage transferred into her name after probate,

she needed to secure a mortgage of £90,000.

The image that we have of Melissa Urquhart

on the benefit application forms

is clearly different from the image she was portraying to the banks.

This was something that told us there was something more

to this lady's character.

Indeed. A few miles across London, Newham Council had Urquhart down as a landlady,

not someone in need of benefits.

Andrea decided to contact her colleagues in East London.

Newham Council were able to give me a list

of all the persons registered in the property

and all information pertaining to the address.

And what I could establish from that was that she had a number of tenants

over the years.

Some to whom had claimed housing benefit.

There were a number of letters she had written in support of her tenants' claims.

After months of hard work, the simple realisation of just what Urquhart had been up to

fell into place.

So in a sense what Melissa has done

is one, she has got a property, inherited a property,

and failed to declare this to Croydon Council.

Two, she's had an income from the property

from a number of tenants over the years.

And before too long it appeared that one tenant who'd put in a claim for housing benefit there

wouldn't have been entitled if the authorities knew the house belonged to Urquhart.

But it didn't stop there with her?

No, it turned out there was a tenant in there

and the tenant at the time was none other than Melissa Urquhart's partner,

or the father of her child.

In fact he didn't do anything wrong

because he never received any of the benefits he was claiming.

The father of Urquhart's child ended up being just another one of her various tenants.

One that Newham Council weren't going to pay for.

OK, so in a very short time we've gone from a desperate single mum

to a very successful landlady.

It is interesting, isn't it?

From a Croydon perspective, we have somebody who was vulnerable,

suffered depression, but our colleagues in Newham knew the same person

as someone who was a reasonably successful landlady.

As if the London borough double life wasn't enough,

Andrea continued to uncover more information

that demonstrated Urquhart's barefaced cheek.

With any fraud that's been reported to us from one section of the council,

we normally check with other departments

to see if the name of this person has cropped up.

In the case of Melissa Urquhart,

I checked with the housing section

and found that she had made a claim to the housing department

to be rehoused.

She informed us that the property she was living in was damp

and it was causing her son to be quite sick as well as herself.

She also complained about not being able to walk upstairs.

She needed somewhere on the ground floor.

She talked about being agoraphobic.

Also not being able to go long distances.

Basically in need of quite a lot of care

from the council.

Wow! That's a substantial and demanding list.

And when it came to making claims to Croydon Council,

Urquhart always prepared a thorough case.

When viewing the housing file,

you can see how much effort

Melissa Urquhart had made

to demonstrate to the council the property she was living in

was not fit for purpose.

A visit was conducted to the property

and an assessment was done and photographs were taken.

And you can see from the photographs that there's a lot of damp

in the property that she lived in.

My question would be,

based on these pictures and seeing the state that the property was in,

why would you subject yourself

and your child's health by remaining in a property that is so run down

when you clearly have somewhere else to live?

A property that you own.

This was an option that was open to Melissa Urquhart,

one that she chose not to take.

But moving into her house would have stopped Urquhart's scam in its tracks.

This latest act of greed was the final straw for Andrea.

Having built a solid case against Urquhart,

the fraud team invited her in for an interview under caution on 15th December 2010.

We had asked her to come to the interview under caution,

for her to give us her version of events,

to give us an explanation.

The evidence that we had was quite overwhelming.

And if there was anything that we had missed

that could have confirmed that it wasn't as it seemed,

that was her opportunity to do so.

The big question was, would she be prepared to talk?

When Melissa attended the interview under caution,

she was very quiet.

She had her head down, she came with an appropriate adult.

She acted the part right down to the letter of someone being quite vulnerable.

She confirmed that she understood the criteria

for claiming benefit.

She also confirmed that all the information she had provided over the years was true

to the best of her knowledge.

She confirmed there were no changes in her circumstances.

So despite all the evidence against her, Melissa was sticking to her guns.

It wasn't until we showed her the credit search

that had been done that indicated that there was

a property in Stratford

that her demure changed.

At that point she became quite agitated

and she requested the interview be suspended

so that she could get legal advice.

A new interview was scheduled in January.

She attended with an appropriate adult and also with a solicitor.

Melissa gave no comment answers to all our questions.

The only thing she confirmed was her name and her date of birth.

The team tried one more time to get Urquhart to come in and answer the questions they had

regarding the rental income from the inherited property.

Instead they got a letter from her legal representatives

saying their client would not be attending any more interviews.

The next step for us was to make our recommendation

to our managers as to what we thought should happen to this case.

Based on the evidence and the amount of loss to the public purse,

I felt there was no alternative other than recommend that she was prosecuted.

For the investigators it was time to prepare for court and do their sums.

So how much had scammed over a nine-year claim period?

She had received housing benefit of over £66,000.

She received over £8,000 in council tax benefits.

And she received £34,000 worth of income support.

The total loss was over £108,000.

In October 2012, the benefits cheat arrived at Croydon Crown Court

to find out her fate.

Melissa Urquhart pleaded guilty to...

And it's a case lead investigator Andrea will remember for a long time.

This was a very sophisticated fraud, committed over a long period of time.

The judge sentenced Melissa to 12 months' imprisonment.

She was quite lucky to get that sentence.

It could have been harsher but the judge took into account

the fact that she had suffered from depression for a number of years

and also that she was a mother.

So the moral of the story - if you're inheriting a property,

don't expect the Government to pay your mortgage.

And for Miss Urquhart,

well, she's got another piece of real estate to add to her portfolio.

But this one has got very heavy doors and bars.