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power to recover overpayments after criminal trial
A colleague has asked me about this but I can’t remember the actual legislation, situation is as follows- cl was prosecuted and convicted of benefit fraud. DWP are trying to recover c. £80k but cl insists that the Crown Court instructed that only c.£12k can be recovered.
To the best of my recollection I don’t think the amount of recoverable overpayment is within the jurisdiction of the Crown Court but I can’t remember the legislation- can anyone help.
The Crown court has no jurisdiction to decide on overpayment. That’s a matter for the tribunal. There are two possibilities I think for the disparity. The Crown Court may have made a compensation order. To do that it has to take a view of the loss to DWP and to that extent it can differ from the DWP’s view on what its loss was. Or it might have made an order under the Proceeds of Crime Act, where it has to take into account how much money is available. You’ll need to get a copy of the Court’s order to see what was actually ordered. If you need to understand the judge’s reasoning you’ll probably need to order a transcript of the judge’s sentencing remarks, unless the CPS (assuming they were the prosecutors) have a detailed note.
The Crown court has no jurisdiction to decide on overpayment. That’s a matter for the tribunal. There are two possibilities I think for the disparity. The Crown Court may have made a compensation order. To do that it has to take a view of the loss to DWP and to that extent it can differ from the DWP’s view on what its loss was. Or it might have made an order under the Proceeds of Crime Act, where it has to take into account how much money is available. You’ll need to get a copy of the Court’s order to see what was actually ordered. If you need to understand the judge’s reasoning you’ll probably need to order a transcript of the judge’s sentencing remarks, unless the CPS (assuming they were the prosecutors) have a detailed note.
That is part of the problem, the cl says he remembers some sort of order being made but my colleague has not been able to find any record of it at all which makes us wonder if there was ever an order in the first place.
If there was no order then we have to assume that DWP can recover what they have lost and it may help our client if we can show him some legislation that says that if the Court does not make an order then the Court has no further jurisdiction over the amount recoverable- its one of those situations, we all know that the Court doesn’t have jurisdiction but cant bring to mind the legislation that says so!
I don’t think looking for legislation is gong to be productive. Legislation only says what a court or tribunal can do, not what it can’t. In any event, your client’s liability for the overpayment is not reduced by the making of a compensation or PoCA order, except insofar as he pays the compensation or PoCA order. The only relevance of the Crown Court trial is that something may have come out in the evidence which can be used to contest the DWP’s full claim before the tribunal. The Crown Court’s verdict and order ought to be available from the Crown Court centre where your client was tried, but for evidence your best bet would be the solicitors who represented him.