Double identity benefits cheat jailed

Published 18 Feb 2011 17:16

FRAUD investigators followed a trail through social networking sites and immigration records to unmask the double life of a benefits cheat.

But justice caught up with Shingirai Zvokunzwa when a judge jailed him for 10 months for fiddling £28,000 from Reading Borough Council.

A court was told Zvokunzwa, from Wroxeter Court, Newstead Rise, Whitley, started claiming housing and council tax benefit in August 2006 when he told the council he was living alone and getting Job Seekers' Allowance.

But three years later council investigators following up a tip-off discovered the house where he was living in east Reading was empty and neighbours said the occupant had moved to Canada. But a full identity fraud investigation was launched jointly by the council and the Department of Work and Pensions after it was discovered Zvokunzwa had told his landlord his name was Tevin Mukonda.

The court heard it was then established that Zvokunzwa changed his name to Mukonda after arriving in Britain from his native Zimbabwe.

In the name of Mukonda he had pocketed three years of Government education grant on top of the state and housing benefits he had been claiming.

He also got a student loan after enrolling at Reading University. But single students with no disabilities receiving full-time education are not eligible, in the majority of cases, for housing benefit.

Further information about Zvokunzwa was gathered from social networking sites, including Facebook, and it transpired that far from moving to Canada, he was living in Milton Keynes - where as Mukonda he had made another benefit claim.

Zvokunzwa admitted six offences of fraud when he appeared at Aylesbury Crown Court on February 2 and, on top of the jail sentence, he was ordered to repay the money he fiddled from Reading Borough Council.

After the case, borough council leader Cllr Andrew Cumpsty said: "It is the hard-working silent majority who have to pay for this selfish and greedy behaviour, so it is entirely right these criminals get the full punishment they deserve."

Know someone who is fraudulently claiming benefits? Call the confidential hotline on 0500 500 777 or go to www.reading.gov.uk/adviceandbenefits/housingandcounciltaxbenefits

Tweet

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.

Follow @rdgchronicle