Benefits fraudster ordered to sell Madeiran home to repay £72,000

Friday 22 November 2019

A 63-year-old woman has been jailed for 18 months, and ordered to repay £72,000 to Social Security after she failed to tell them she owned a three-bedroom home in Madeira, as well as having €14,500 in savings, and then fraudulently claimed £63,495 of income support.

Maria Teresa Vieira appeared in Royal Court today for sentencing after admitting one count of “...withholding material information from Social Security with an intent to obtain an award of income support.”

Vieira claimed £63,495 in Income Support between September 2011 and February 2019 after she became too ill to work.

Crown Advocate Conrad Yates, prosecuting, said Vieira had told Social Security she was widowed, a States tenant and receiving £680 a month in survivor’s pension, as well as short-term incapacity allowance. She declared a Jersey bank account which had a small balance and confirmed she owned no property abroad. 

Pictured: Vieira first applied for Income Support in 2011.

She submitted the same information in 2013 and again in February 2019 when she was asked specific questions about any assets she owned in Jersey or abroad, and whether there had been any changes to her circumstances.

Vieira ignored a request to obtain a confirmation of her assets from the Portuguese Ministry of Finance within 14 days and explained, after a second request, that she hadn't done so because she didn’t have any assets abroad. 

Vieira eventually admitted she had €14,000 in savings in Madeira as well as a three-bedroom house in São Gonçalo in her husband’s name. She said she had bought it with her husband in 1999 with a mortgage, which was paid off by an insurance policy, after her husband died in 2009.

Vieira said the house was occupied by her two nieces, who paid their bills but no rent. She denied ever having tenants in there and said she wouldn’t sell the house as it was not hers, but her children’s and grandchildren’s.

Pictured: Vieira owned a three-bedroom property in Madeira.

Her claim was re-assessed and the department found she should never have been entitled to income support at all, and had received an overpayment of £63,459.45. 

In an interview, Vieira said she had claimed income support because she had got sick, and did not have enough money to pay her £160-a-week rent. She stated that lying on her forms, “...had made her sick to her stomach.”

“I thought if I was to declare the house then I would be in trouble like I am now,” she later said. “… [I] would have been sent home because I couldn’t afford the accommodation here on my own.” 

Pictured: Vieira said she had claimed income support to survive in Jersey.

The enforcement officer asked her whether she had only admitted owning the house because she had “no escape” when forced to provide official documents, Vieira claimed she wanted to “come clean” and would have done so this year anyway.

Officers asked Vieira why she had claimed Income Support when she had money to pay for 21 years, if she had she sold her house, and she said she had no explanation for that. 

Vieira suggested it would be fair for someone to claim Income Support if they did not have money in Jersey, but did have property in England and savings, because “they are here and they are working here... They’re paying the taxes and they’re paying everything in here. They’re working hard in here.” 

Pictured: Vieira should never have been entitled to income support.

Vieira agreed to repay the overpayment in income support at £50 a week, and to put her house on the market, to repay the full debt. 

Defending, advocate George Pearce told the Court Vieira had not used the money to pay for luxuries but “simply to pay her rent.”

He said she had written a letter to the Court in which she expressed a “deep sense of remorse and regret.”

Advocate Pearce highlighted how Vieira’s upbringing had been “impoverished”. He said she had an “extremely strong hardworking ethic” and had worked hard in the hotel and cleaning industries.

He told Court she was a committed member of a local church and had done a lot of voluntary work within the community, including with the Cry Jersey charity.

Pictured: The Bailiff said Vieira's actions were "incomprehensible" due to her “strong religious faith”.

Returning the sentence of the Court, the Bailiff, Tim Le Cocq, who was sitting with Jurats Anthony Olsen and Steven Austin-Vautier, said it was strange Vieira “should have felt able to lie on many occasions” given her “strong religious faith” and the references submitted on her behalf.

He said she should have been able to sustain her life in Jersey “out of her own sources.”

The Bailiff said he accepted Vieira’s remorse was genuine. He however added that her charity work, religious faith and positive character made it “all the more incomprehensible that you have fallen so far below your standards.”

He said there were no exceptional circumstances in her case that would allow court to consider a non-custodial sentence, and sentenced her to 18 months in prison – six months less than suggested by the Crown due to her “extremely positive character and positive contribution to society in the island.” 

The Bailiff gave Vieira 12 months to repay £72,000 in compensation as well as £15,000 toward the prosecution costs. He said the delay would allow her to sell the property and warned her that if she does not pay she would spend another 12 months in prison.

He said he would not recommend Vieira’s deportation due to her links to the island, and the presence of her children and grandchildren, noting her offending was not “sufficient” to override her's and her family’s rights.