A PEMBROKESHIRE man has been ordered to sell a home he owns in Spain to repay almost £26,000 of benefits he falsely claimed in the UK after becoming ill.

Nigel Hadley, 61, from Pembroke Dock, moved to Marbella in 2000, buying a fisherman’s cottage two years later, but failed to declare that he had it.

He admitted three counts of benefit fraud at a plea hearing at Swansea Crown Court.

Hadley has been warned he faces jail if he fails to comply within six months.

The court heard Hadley had left the UK to set up a catering firm in Spain.

Jim Davis, defending, told the court Hadley had originally set up an outside catering firm in Spain focusing on the market for film schools.

“But in April 2010 he suffered a serious stroke and was unable to work and essentially stayed on in Spain until his money ran out,” Mr Davis said.

Hoa Dieu, prosecuting, said Hadley came back to Britain in January 2011 and claimed employment support allowance from the benefit agency.

Within six months he also applied to his local council for housing benefit and council tax benefit.

In all three cases he failed to inform the authorities that he had a property in Spain, despite being asked verbally and on claim forms.

He was caught when the work and pension agency sent him an “habitual residency” claim form which specifically asked whether he had any other property.

The combined overpayment Hadley had received amounted to £25,960.

Judge Keith Thomas, sentenced Hadley to nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

He ordered him to pay back the full £25,960 claimed in benefits through the sale of his only asset, the Spanish property.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve heard of so many ex-pats on the coast signing on and claiming disability whilst actively working over here. They tend to be the overweight tattooed group who booze in the english bars and behave obnoxiously to other ex-pats. Time to stop benefits for people outside the UK. Trust me, these scrounger’s won’t starve to death, though I suspect they may turn to crime to fund their habits.

  2. Pandora: If you actually KNOW any of these boozy, cheating dead-legs, why not turn them in? Or are you so out of date that you haven’t realised the size of Ian Duncan Smiths chopper and what he has done and continues to do to benefits? The people you describe live mostly in the fevered imagination of Daily Mail readers. I suggest you turn your venom on the REAL crooks and tax- dodgers who bleed the U.K. of billions, instead of petty chavs who get away (sometimes) with a few grand.

  3. So this person has a home in Spain he cannot sell, claims enough to feed himself and now they want him to repay the money. Don’t sound right does it. So you have to sell all of your properties before you can claim benefits! He could be years with no food money!

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