Couple Sentenced for £630,000 Benefits and Tax Fraud Over Two Decades

A husband and wife who concealed wages, rental income and multiple properties while claiming disability and other benefits were sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Steve Benstock received a five-year prison term and Kim Benstock, 67, received a nine-month suspended sentence. 18 between them.

Steve Benstock was convicted of 12 offences including fraud by false representation, tax evasion, failing to disclose information, failing to notify a change in circumstances and obtaining a money transfer by deception. Kim Benstock was convicted of seven counts including cheating the public revenue but was cleared on two counts of evading income tax and national insurance contributions.

GB News reported the case.

The couple married in 1996. Shortly afterward Steve Benstock began using the alias Steve Twinley to sign documents and open bank accounts. He also used the name Steve Cash on a driving licence to mislead the DWP.

Court records showed he held ten accounts with Nationwide and seven with HSBC, plus additional joint accounts with his wife. ” The properties included a flat in Tower Hamlets, a £223,000 home in Essex, an apartment in Fuerteventura, two houses in Romford valued at £240,000 and £690,000, and further houses in East London and Ilford.

The couple held around £400,000 in property and £32,000 in a shared bank account.

Steve Benstock worked at and occasionally ran a pub in West Ham. 10. Kim Benstock claimed disability living allowance citing rheumatoid arthritis while concealing the same assets and income.

08. ” He added that the couple had been “acting like Monopoly tycoons, collecting rental income from the comfort of lavish properties with outdoor pools” while claiming benefits they had no right to receive.