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<p>The Department is committed to the prevention, detection and investigation of benefit
fraud. We take this issue very seriously and will continue to use appropriate penalties
to deter this fraudulent behaviour.</p><p> </p><p>Turning to the specific case you
reference, the defendant was convicted at a Magistrates court on 14 February 2019
for fraudulently obtaining £4,152.86 in Universal Credit Advances.</p><p> </p><p>This
prosecution identified that the suspect had hijacked the identities of close family
members in order to make fraudulent applications to Universal Credit, via the online
application process, enabling fraudulent payments of Universal Credit and Universal
Credit Advances.</p><p> </p><p>It was established that the defendant had also impersonated
a friend and changed the payment destination of his friend’s Universal Credit payments.</p>
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