In the latest case concerning Access to Work fraud to go through the courts, a couple from Derby who were sign language interpreters and ran their own agency, have been convicted of a £1million fraud.
Extract from the Daily Mail:
A couple have been convicted of a £1million fraud which included claiming for work helping deaf people while they were actually on holiday in Dubai.
Angela Poole, 47, and George Taylor, 54, funded a lavish lifestyle by over-charging the taxpayer by £400,000 for work as sign language interpreters for deaf people in work.
The government today condemned the ‘appalling’ scale of the fraud, which included Poole billing the taxpayer for the equivalent of 21 hours a day.
The couple from Derbyshire were also caught out trying to avoid almost £700,000 in tax owed to Revenue and Customs.
Poole and Taylor worked as British Sign Language interpreters for deaf people who were in work.
Together they ran Angel Interpreting and BSL Talking Hands which carried out work for the Department for Work and Pensions.
They were paid through the Access to Work scheme offered to help people with a disability, health or medical condition to ensure they can continue in their job.
The couple made claims from the taxpayer directly on behalf of their clients to help pay for regular holidays to exotic locations. It is understood that at one stage they began a relationship.
Both knowingly over-claimed more than £400,000 for work they did not do.
Poole was found guilty at Derby Crown Court while Taylor had pleased guilty to the charges previously.
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Oh Dear
June 5, 2015
Another one. How many more out there?
Linda Richards
June 6, 2015
Cases involving interpreters? Who knows?
Still waiting on another major case in Scotland which was done hand in hand (no pun intended), with interpreters.
Colette Phippard
June 6, 2015
It’s very easy to blame interpreters and Deaf people but what responsibility are the DWP taking for having such poor administration systems that they have left themselves open to such abuse? The DWP are ‘guardians’ of public money, why aren’t they being castigated for leaving themselves wide open to fraud? If claims systems are so week then there will always be those who will take advantage, no matter who they are. Why didn’t ATW/DWP pick up on someone who was ‘working 21 hours a day’? Why did it have to come down to the suspicions of the agencies Deaf customers to alert them? The systems must be really poor for this couple to get away with as much as they did. And where is the congratulations to the Deaf people that shopped them? Not everyone is on the fiddle but make it easy to and someone will. The DWP have to bear more responsibility that they are rather than creating a blame culture and using stories like this as a justification to make unequal cuts.
Linda Richards
June 6, 2015
This particular case didn’t appear to have much publicity before or during the court hearing. I can think of other court cases where the publicity and media coverage has been well ahead and quite prejudical in respect of (mainly) Deaf defendants.
How come? Is that because of the interpreters who breached confidentiality when interpreting the preliminary interviews? Other interpreters attempting to clear their names by talking to their ‘professional’ colleagues about the case?
Some consequences have been …
Apart from the distrust which will take a long time to address…
There are (yellow card carrying) interpreters who have ‘got away’ with it but who, for us Deaf folk who know what they have done, will never use them and never recommend them.
Further, several Deaf-led agencies or self-employed Deaf people have been put under suspicion or openly queried as to their ATW practices by some interpreters – the very same interpreters who benefitted from regular work and timely payments.
It can be no surprise that these Deaf agencies or individuals now don’t use them, don’t give them bookings and, above all, don’t recommend them.
If these ‘interpreters’ can treat Deaf people with such disrespect, they are not employees they want to have and certainly don’t sound at all professional.
Yes, the claims system was idiotic but I think it’s fatuous to blame the ‘ease’ of the system for fraudulent activities when, collectively, we’ve known this to be the case for at least the last five years….
Gum Tree
June 7, 2015
There appears to be another case of sustained and years long agency fraud in Scotland (NOT the one referred to above). Unfortunately the regulatory body will not against the owner (a registrant) and reports to Trading Standards have so far yielded no results.
Difficult to know what steps to take when deaf people are potentially being defrauded and the procedures and legislation supposed to protect consumers do anything but.
Linda Richards
June 8, 2015
Interesting.
I wonder which agency this is and if it concerns the one about which I have been concerned.
Unfortunately, there have been a number of cover ups over the years.
There is also a problem with those organisations or agencies who hide behind or use D/deaf people to give them some sense of ‘respectability’.
We have so much work to do.
Gum Tree
June 8, 2015
Judging by a comment I saw from you elsewhere Linda, there is a high probability it is. Unfortunately I don’t think there is anything that can be done.
Linda Richards
June 8, 2015
We can stop using them.
We can say we do not use or recommend them.
We can continue to ask questions.
We can ask the regulatory body if they are confident that all its members are ‘clean’? (In that note… Is it really ‘regulatory’ if it can do nothing – or is it that it won’t it do anything?)
We can ask the the funding bodies to investigate or report our concerns to the funding bodies.
We mustn’t not do anything though we may have to bide our time.
Colette Phippard
June 7, 2015
No need to be quite so insulting Linda, I am simply making the point that the article isn’t very balanced, the DWP have a role to play in protecting public money and their failure to do that is a factor that is being ignored.
Linda Richards
June 7, 2015
I wasn’t directing my comments at you Colette. Just making a general comment.
I do find it interesting to reflect how there isn’t really the same outrage (about certain practices and interpreters) that there was about the fake Mandela interpreter scenario.