City of York Council's crackdown on benefits cheats has led to the conviction of a resident who failed to declare the £549,000 his wife had won in accident compensation.

Mohammed Humayun Kabir, 58, of Earswick Chase, received thousands of pounds in swindled benefits from 1998 while his disabled wife, Nilufa Kabir, was receiving regular injury compensation payments following a cycling accident. Mr Kabir also lied about their houses at Earswick Chase and St John Street.

Investigators from City of York Council and the Benefits Agency - now the Department for Work and Pensions - discovered that while Mr Kabir claimed the couple's house at St John Street was rented it was in fact owned by Mrs Kabir. Mrs Kabir had also received accident compensation payments totalling £549,000 between August 1998 and October 1999.

All the while, Mr Kabir had benefited from income support and council tax relief after failing to declare the houses, savings, the compensation payments and £550 a month in rent from Mrs Kabir's house at St John Street.

Today, at York Crown Court, Mr Kabir, of Earswick Chase, admitted 27 fraud charges of making false representations to obtain income support payments totalling £5,000. The case was then adjourned until Monday, May 27 when Kabir will be sentenced.

City of York Council's benefits fraud team initiated the investigation and today Kathleen Jones, the council's senior benefits inspector, said she was delighted at the outcome of today's hearing.

She said, "City of York Council is committed to ensuring that all people who are entitled to help from the benefit system are given every assistance possible.

"However we will not tolerate the systematic abuse of the system by individuals. All cases of benefit fraud are investigated thoroughly with a view to prosecuting the offenders. We have a duty to protect the public purse and will make every attempt to remove fraud from the benefit system. It has taken quite some time to secure this conviction but we are all delighted."

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