Benefit Fraud; Is there a ‘Domestic Abuse’ defence.

Through delivering welfare rights advice to women offenders it the Criminal Justice System I have come across many benefit fraud cases. It would be interesting to see statistics regarding how many males are involved in fraud cases compared to females but it is becoming increasingly obvious that there is an element of exploitation by males over vulnerable women who always end up ‘carrying the can’ for the crime, as they are invariably the claimant for CTC, HB, IS etc. Does anybody know of successful defences on the grounds of Domestic Abuse or exploitation of someone with reduced capacity? I would also appreciate help in finding a lawyer/solicitor specialising in the Social Security Administration Act 1992 in Scotland.
Many thanks…............

Thanks for swift response Tony and the good advice.

There is a defence but it’s not available to every woman, that of the defence of marital coercion, unsuccessfully used by Vicky Price.  However, the government intends to abolish it.  There is also the defence of duress but I don’t know what the threshold is for this.

http://www.olliers.com/latest-news/256-marital-coercion-defence-to-be-abolished.html

Vicky Price spent 4 days in Holloway and two months in an open prison at East Sutton Park (a grade II listed manor house) during her 62 days she penned her ‘Diary of a middle class jailbird’ which the Daily Mail paid her for on her release. She also researched her book ‘Prisonomics’; now on sale.
Unfortunately the women I am coming across face a prison sentence in a mainstream prison and will be released to have maximum deductions taken from their benefits (by the LA, HMRC or Debt Management) for the rest of their lives. The result is a life sentence of poverty for being vulnerable and abused.
Thanks for the reply Nevip I might write to Vicky for some support and help her salve her conscience for asking us to believe Huhne could coerce his way out of a wet paper bag, let alone her. I don’t think this defence was ever on the statute book up here in Scotland.

JP007 - 18 March 2014 12:32 PM

Vicky Price spent 4 days in Holloway and two months in an open prison at East Sutton Park (a grade II listed manor house) during her 62 days she penned her ‘Diary of a middle class jailbird’ which the Daily Mail paid her for on her release. She also researched her book ‘Prisonomics’; now on sale.
Unfortunately the women I am coming across face a prison sentence in a mainstream prison and will be released to have maximum deductions taken from their benefits (by the LA, HMRC or Debt Management) for the rest of their lives. The result is a life sentence of poverty for being vulnerable and abused.
Thanks for the reply Nevip I might write to Vicky for some support and help her salve her conscience for asking us to believe Huhne could coerce his way out of a wet paper bag, let alone her. I don’t think this defence was ever on the statute book up here in Scotland.

Thank you for making my day, JP007.

I did one of these very recently, used the same defence as Price and the Judge all but laughed me out of court even though we had a statement from Police interview of Husband stating he did make her coerce and put her under durress to commit the fraud.

I have to say I wrote to the Judge afterwards and needless to say, his response was just as dismissive.

I am also aware that Council Tax arrears and Housing Benefit arrears/overpayments are being vigorously pursued in cases where no fraud charges were brought. In many of these the female claimants have been intimidated into ‘failing to report changes of circumstances’ by abusive partners who are intent on maintaining their own benefits, tenancies or anonymity. Council Debt Management teams are similarly blind to this aspect of Domestic Abuse and do not seem willing to discuss the reasons behind such debt with me. There is more scope to quote local authority policies regarding Domestic Abuse in this argument and I continue to argue the case for the most clear cut cases where it is blindingly obvious who the victim is and the injustice of Courts or Local Authorities compounding their misery cries out for representation. There must be scope for a nationwide campaign.

Have a look at the following, re – duress.  It might give you some ideas.

http://www.lawteacher.net/criminal-law/cases/duress-1.php

http://sixthformlaw.info/02_cases/mod3a/cases_61_gen_def_duress.htm

Thanks for links. Every bit of information helps.