Anybody watching this?

Im trying to watch it but the ma in laws here and loudly waffling on about world war two and the price of carrots in 1950 so I cant really hear much...

Looks good though...

Scrounging scum.

I've seen similar programs in the past and thought that this latest attempt was rather poor.
It would of been far more interesting to see the fiddlers get a rreally tough sentence none of this couple of hundred hours community service but rather six months of ccommunityservice and the nasttier the service the better.

I watched bits of it, but it didn't look like it put people off. Everyone they prosecuted just got community service and that's it. I don't think it was much of a deterrent.

Even the couple who got 80k with a 350k 4 bed detached house, audi tt etc only had to do community service.

I watched bits of it, but it didn't look like it put people off. Everyone they prosecuted just got community service and that's it. I don't think it was much of a deterrent.

Even the couple who got 80k with a 350k 4 bed detached house, audi tt etc only had to do community service.

This concerns me, are you really saying that somebody stole £80k from us, the taxpayers, and only got community service? That's shocking if true.

If I nicked £5k from my company, something I could easily do, I would in jail and stripped of my qualifications quicker than you could say "you're nicked son."

We only have ourselves to blame if we allow certain criminals to get away with it for whatever reasons.

I am saying exactly this. Everyone they said they prosecuted only got community service. The couple I mentioned above were both claiming as single parents, one from 1994 and one from 1999 (I think), they lived in a massive brand new 350k house, had about three cars (not cheap ones) and one of them was a brand new TT that was a week old, and it showed the guy going to a new housing estate and looking at a £500k house. The woman was claiming £500 a month which was paying her rent, but then she was renting her council flat out to a bloke for £500 so she had that just as spending money. They said that they had received £40k in benefits and with the rent that would be doubled.

They took them to Court and I thought they were going to get a prison sentence at the very least. Nope. They got about 300 hours community service between them and they said they were looking through their accounts to see if they could get £354k back from them (which confused me a little) but they probably wouldn't.

She finished off saying 'I hope this makes people realise that they will get caught and we will get our money back in the end' - but who cares because if you haven't got the money in your accounts to pay it back, you don't have to and you are however many thousands up.

Just shows that it really doesn't pay to be above board sometimes!!

From the title I was expecting an extravaganza of gypsy folk tunes from across the world. Imagine my disappointment to find it was actually yet another cheap tacky reality show about council estate dwellers!

I thought the couple had six months in which to repay the £80 k as well as community service. However the other people given community service and it wasn't clear whether they also had to pay the money back or not.
The bit that baffled me was the way the woman was also being looked at for a further £300 k [I think] how on earth can some-one fiddle that sort of money and it not be blatantly obvious where it's gone.

Fiddles cheats and scams on BBC1 now....

Theres a boxer on Invalidity and a bloke claiming for over 30 non existant kids.

A program showing some of the rather more extreme cases regarding benefit fraud. The system obviously has loop-holes in it and so I'd be curious to know when such loop-holes are identified why the system is not tightened up immediately to stop anyone else trying similar scams.
Also the surveillance seems to go on for ages when it should be fairly apparent when some-one is trying it on, the guy with the back injury humping a shop sign as one example but then the observers sight is obscured by a passing van and suddenly all the footage is unusable.

A program showing some of the rather more extreme cases regarding benefit fraud. The system obviously has loop-holes in it and so I'd be curious to know when such loop-holes are identified why the system is not tightened up immediately to stop anyone else trying similar scams.

Also the surveillance seems to go on for ages when it should be fairly apparent when some-one is trying it on, the guy with the back injury humping a shop sign as one example but then the observers sight is obscured by a passing van and suddenly all the footage is unusable.

Simply because the amount of money required to keep a draconian view on all fraud, would cost more than the amount lost. More to the point, do we want a '1984' state?

I've actually taped the programme, because I find it amusing to pull apart loads of the investigations, and the comments (on the programme) therefrom. The thing is, I'm probably sure that what was shown wasn't anything to do with 'loopholes', but systematic fraud. There's a world of difference.

I saw it and its disgusting that people will stoop to such levels to commit crime but the penalties are worth it and while we let this go on it will perpetuate itself.

There has to be a mandatory sentance for such crimes to deter it and it is a crime to claim benefits when you are not entitled to them.

I saw it and its disgusting that people will stoop to such levels to commit crime but the penalties are worth it and while we let this go on it will perpetuate itself.

There has to be a mandatory sentance for such crimes to deter it and it is a crime to claim benefits when you are not entitled to them.

Didnt one bloke fiddle over 2 million from them and end up with a 13 month jail sentance or something like that?

Id happily do five years for one million so the light sentances are well worth it.

Scrounging scum.

Daily Mail much? :loopy:

Your location is apt anyway, you ARE in Cuckoo Land! :loopy: