Benefit cheat claimed loved ones died in terror attack

10:28am Friday 9th May 2008

A BENEFIT cheat who said his loved ones had died in the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London has been jailed.

Lieing Afzal Ramzan was told by a judge "you don't know the truth from fiction" after he claimed his brother-in-law and nephew had perished in the terrorist atrocity.

"You are an inveterate liar. You don't know truth from fiction."

Judge Beatrice Bolton

The serial crook was already legally claiming job seekers allowance in the name of his jailed brother.

But he went on to make two bogus applications for Emergency Community Care Grants.

The 27-year-old claimed in one of those applications he needed to flee as his abusive father was about to return from Pakistan.

And in the other he used the terrorist attacks on the capital as part of the scam, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

"You can make application for an award to cover emergency situations," said Susan Hirst, prosecuting.

"The first he submitted was a claim for a grant to cover removal costs for his sister in Leeds, falsely stating she had lost her husband and son in the London bombings."

Ramzan, living in Rectory Road, Bensham, Gateshead, when he concocted the con, was finally rumbled when brother Yasin made a legitimate benefit inquiry shortly before his prison release in June, 2006.

"Routine checks carried out revealed job seekers allowance was already being paid to someone using his name and had been since February 2005," Miss Hirst told the court.

Ramzan, who had pocketed £2,387 from the fiddle, admitted 15 charges of making false statements to get benefit.

He already has a string of convictions for dishonesty, including deceptions and perverting justice.

Jailing him for 15 months, Judge Beatrice Bolton said only custody could be justified and hit out at his cruel confidence trick. "You are an inveterate liar," she told Ramzan.

"You don't know truth from fiction.

"This is a case where you deliberately went out to defraud the department by pretending to be your brother."

Judge Bolton said the emergency grant applications had been sent using "very unpleasant and unpalatable" lies.

She told Ramzan "This has got to stop and the time has come when you must receive an immediate custodial sentence."

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