Alex Iszatt (Reporter)
IN 2011 we led with an exclusive on Briton Norman Brennan who fled the UK in 2008 after admitting to £120,000 of benefit fraud.
Sky News has now followed up on the story and confronted the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who has ordered an investigation on the case and is leading a clampdown on benefit cheats.
Setting up home in Mijas on the Costa del Sol, Brennan’s neighbours came to us after they got nowhere with the British police, government and the Junta.
Brennan, admitted to Liverpool crown court that he used his brother’s name to claim £120,000 in housing and council tax benefit, Jobseeker’s Allowance and pension credits.
When we discovered the case two years ago, we contacted the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and they said at the time “It would be great to track down Brennan who is awaiting sentencing for fraud.”
It took, another two years, and Sky News to get involved, before they did something about it.
Brennan, a retired joiner from Merseyside, has not been on the run, and has been living at the same address for the past five years.
The Department of Work and Pensions claimed they were searching for him, but its HR department knew where he was living as they were still sending him his pension.
On the run but at same address for two years..???? Hardly on the run….
Another £25k to keep him in prison per year here and then provide him with benefits and a council house when he gets out.. Better to leave him there.
In MIJAS?? That explains a lot! Is the Ayuntamiento only interested in vilifying law abiding, tax-paying citizens?
This sort of thing doesn’t stir the blood like it used to.