Benefit fraud is a crime – we must make cheats like Chanice Bowen who conned system of £22k feel guilty
I’M a big believer in paying taxes, which is why I don’t use any complicated tax-avoidance schemes or offshore trusts.
And, without wanting to sound too sanctimonious, I’m proud that a decent proportion of the money that I earn from working hard goes towards building a better society for everyone, whether that means education, healthcare, security or supporting people who can’t support themselves.
When I read stories like the one about Chanice Bowen, 25, who lied and cheated almost £22,000 from the benefits system, I feel a real sense of anger.
In January 2013, Bowen wrote a letter to the Department for Work and Pensions saying she had split from her boyfriend, Lee Mapstone, and was a single mum.
As a result, her benefits payment rose — and over two and a half years that amounted to almost £22,000.
But she got caught out after posting her wedding pictures on Facebook with the online caption: “Best years of my life.”
I bet they were!
She spent months planning their big white wedding, jetted off on a Spanish holiday and didn’t have to worry for a second about the cost of childcare.
Even when investigators asked her what she was doing on October 10 — the day of her marriage — she had the cheek to say she couldn’t remember.
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In Cardiff Crown Court last week she pleaded guilty to three counts of dishonestly failing to disclose information.
Perhaps it would be easier to feel sympathy if she’d needed the money to feed her family.
But, no, she acted out of greed, not need. Simple as that.
I’m pretty sure that, if I stole £22k, I would go to prison — and I think she should, but instead she got a suspended sentence.
At the very least she should be forced to sell everything she bought with the stolen money, to help pay back what she owes, and banned from ever being allowed to claim benefits again.
She should also be made to do some sort of community service — something to make her consider the reality of what she has done.
The brazenness of this crime is what’s most annoying about it — writing a letter to claim single mum status, then cocking a snook by posting wedding photos all over social media. At least if you are going to cheat, be clever about it.
But her sense of entitlement overrode any moral compass and I guess she thinks it’s just “the system” she is abusing, rather than individuals like you and me who are working to make the money she spent.
The Government is not a business. It doesn’t generate money — it just collects it from the taxpayer, ie you and me.
We live in an amazing country, with a benefit system that was put in place to help those in society who cannot help themselves — and that’s exactly how it should be.
It’s not there to be milked as much as possible.
I’m in no doubt, by the way, that most people who claim benefits are honest and really need the money to survive.
I also think that most people on benefits want to get off them, back on to their feet and back in the workplace so they can feel the sense of pride and independence that comes from having a job and supporting yourself and your family.
A small minority, though, prefer to cheat the system to get “free money”.
In an ideal world, everyone would understand right from wrong. But in the absence of that, the system needs to get tougher.
Benefits fraud needs to be rebranded and made to be as socially unacceptable as domestic violence and drink-driving — a rotten crime and one you should be too ashamed to do.
There is a silver lining to this story, though. Now Chanice Bowen will have to get a job to pay back the money she stole.
Every month, the Government will take a chunk of her hard-earned cash to pay for others.
At this point, she may find herself wondering whether the money she has earned is being unfairly claimed by people who basically cannot be fagged to work and I imagine she will be fairly indignant at the prospect.
I imagine she will say it’s not fair. Perhaps she will find herself thinking: “There’s nothing more annoying than working hard, paying tax and someone stealing it.”
And she’d be right.
Lessons of abuse scandals
DEPRESSINGLY, this week saw 27 men and two women appear in court accused of child trafficking, rape and sex abuse, against 18 girls as young as 11, over a period of seven years.
In a year that has seen the people behind the horrors of the child-grooming and sex-abuse ring in Rochdale finally brought to justice, let’s hope there will now be a sea change in society.
One thing that stood out about Rochdale is that, despite one victim going to the police in 2008 to report the grooming, the detectives and the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute two men because they questioned the victim’s “credibility”.
They didn’t believe the victim because the people she was accusing seemed like upstanding community members.
That is probably no coincidence, by the way.
Violent, abusive men often try to present themselves in a way that belies the reality – psychologists and sociologists call it “impression management”.
Let’s hope, now that those men have been punished, and in light of revelations about how people turned a blind eye to Jimmy Savile’s crimes for the same reason, we as a society have learned this important lesson: a lot can be hidden in plain sight, under the cloak of “respectability”.
No contest on who wore it best
I SAW a picture of Jennifer Aniston – one of my style heroes – wearing a pair of fabulous black trousers, with a white stripe down the side, that I happen to own too.
Why is it that when she wears them, she looks a million dollars and is applauded for her natural style – and the last three times I’ve worn mine I’ve been asked why I’m wearing a tracksuit?
For girls, shaving is the pits
IT’S amazing what a fuss Madonna’s daughter Lourdes has triggered by revealing that, shock horror, she chooses not to shave her armpits.
Somehow, she has sparked an international debate on the matter.
Personally, on the grooming front, when I can be bothered to, then I do. When I can’t, I don’t. End of.
That’s the point – it’s your choice and no one should be expected to do anything just because they are a woman.
Enough is enough
EEK! Rodrigo Alves, the “Human Ken Doll”, was recently photographed having had, apparently, three hours of Botox and fillers in a bid to further his aim of looking more plastic than human.
What this man needs, rather than three hours in the company of a cosmetic surgeon, is a good friend to sit him down and say: “Rodrigo, enough is enough.”
He needs help, not Botox.
It doesn't grow on trees
I WAS interested to read that Gordon Ramsay is not planning to pass on his fortune to his four children.
He says he has no problem with the fact that, while he gets on a flight and turns left into first-class, he sends his children into economy.
His logic is that he’s earned it with years of sheer hard graft, whereas his children have yet to understand the true value of money.
There’s something admirable about this attitude.
It reminds me of a story I heard about Bill Gates, who apparently said when someone told him that his son was a better tipper than he was: “Well, he is the son of a billionaire; I’m the son of a woodcutter.”
There is no denying the fact that you won’t understand the value of money until you make it yourself.