Asylum seeker commits fraud and gets community service

AN ASYLUM seeker and his family paid more than £100,000 in emergency benefits didn't tell the authorities they had thousands of pounds in cash at the home they'd been given.

When police and immigration officers went to the property in Seymour Street, Cardiff they found £9,000 in cash.

Also in the house where Mohammed Iqbal lived with his wife and three children were applications for credit cards claiming he was earning up to £24,000 a year when he was in fact jobless.

Prosecutor Roger Griffiths said: “The money was not declared as it should have been and £20,877 was paid to him in benefits after the date he says the money was received.”

He was sentenced to 200 hours unpaid community work by Recorder Patrick Curran QC who told him: “It's a mark of a civilised society that people in distress, forced to leave their home countries, are given asylum.

I have a few issues here. First of all, he was here for a number of years but was still receiving emergency benefits. Surely it still wasn’t an emergency after a few years?

Second of all he only received 200 hours community service for defrauding us out of £20,000 which means that he is effectively paying back £100 per hour. What company offers £100 per hour for cleaning walls and picking up litter? Give me their phone number. I want a job.

Believe it or not this is not the first time a foreigner has basically received a slap on the wrist. Back in February I blogged about an illegal immigrant who committed fraud and was given 160 hours community service. It seems that foreigners can get off easy in this country.