Second benefits cheat given 'slapped wrist' by magistrates

A SECOND West Somerset benefits cheat has been let off by magistrates after the district council took a prosecution to court.
Ian Ware, aged 41, of The Glebe, Timberscombe, claimed nearly £5,000 in housing benefit and council tax benefit to which he was not entitled.
His fraud was committed over a 14-month period from February of last year to April of this year, during which time Ware dishonestly failed to notify the council of changes to his circumstances.
Despite having found work, Ware did not promptly tell the council and continued to receive a total of £3,704.27 in housing benefit and £1,097.31 in council tax benefit to which he was not entitled.
Ware, who had since started to pay back the over-paid benefits at a rate of less than £10 a week, pleaded guilty to the offence.
The magistrates gave him credit for an early guilty plea and the fact he was already making some repayments to the council.
They conditionally discharged Ware for 12 months, which meant he would not be further punished if he kept out of trouble during that time.
The court did not make any order for compensation as arrangements were already in place.
Following the hearing, West Somerset Council finance portfolio holder, Councillor Doug Ross, appealed for the public to report anybody they suspected of dishonestly claiming benefits.
Councillor Ross said the council had a fraud hotline on 01984 635236 which people could call anonymously to tip off the authority’s benefits team.
He said: “It is made clear to benefits claimants that the responsibility to report changes in circumstances lies with them.
“Our benefits team is on hand to help anybody who may find themselves in difficult circumstances and we would advise people to contact the team if they need to.
“Failure to do so will lead to our fraud team taking action against people who are dishonestly claiming benefits to which they are not entitled.”

Fraud squad police investigate photographer

FRAUD squad police have investigated a Minehead photographer who is also a former bankrupt.
Two detectives visited the town last year to speak to local businessmen about the activities of Mark Stothard (pictured), who has been trading under the company name Mark The Photographer Ltd.
The inquiries at that time were in relation to items being sold on the internet auction site eBAY apparently on behalf of a firm called Carnopy.co.uk, which was a genuine company not involved in any scam.
Mr Stothard, aged 40, who at one time took photographs for The Crier newspaper and subsequently for The Post, was found to have been discharged from bankruptcy only the months earlier.
He had been made bankrupt in Eastbourne County Court in May, 2005, when he was known to be also using another name, Anthony Leaver, which coincidentally was the name of a Scottish man who had lost his wallet the previous year. Anthony was also his middle name.
His occupation at the time was given as unknown and his address was listed as Gates Cottage, Beasley Farm, Timberscombe, although it had recently been in North Street, Taunton.
A month after his automatic discharge from bankruptcy, Mr Stothard converted his Mark The Photographer sole trading name to a limited company with a registered address in Praed Street, London, which continues to be used as a trading address.
Eleven months later, in December, 2007, a county court judgement for a debt of £12,194 was obtained against Mr Stothard’s company Mark The Photographer Ltd during an ‘in chambers’ session held in Banbury County Court, Oxfordshire.
A few days later, The Post began receiving invoices from Mark The Photographer Ltd claiming fees of nearly £1,000 for photographs taken under an agreement whereby had received promotion of his business in the newspaper.
Since then, the bills claimed against The Post by Mr Stothard have risen to nearly £1,300 and the newspaper has also been receiving demands on his behalf from a business calling itself South West Debt Recovery.
Mr Stothard, who uses his wife Sarah Masters a company director to sign correspondence, was recently believed to be living off Seaward Way, Minehead, but has now started using a trading address in Bridge Street, Taunton.
SW Debt Recovery – which is also the name of a dissolved company – conceals its identity by using a Taunton PO Box number as its address and does not give any names of people in the business.
After threatening court action against The Post, the debt recovery business has since claimed to have reported the newspaper to the ‘Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Constabulary together with the electoral and Parliamentary bodies regarding your business activities’.
The Mayor of Minehead, Councillor David Hawkes has received correspondence on behalf of Mr Stothard complaining that he was owed money by The Post’s sales and marketing manager, Dudley Seale, who is a town councillor.
It is understood Mr Stothard has sent similar letters to the Conservative’s constituency office and to the West Somerset Free Press and Somerset County Gazette newspapers.
The Post understands Mr Stothard has similarly harassed a member of Minehead Cricket Club and other local businesses have been upset by his demands for payments they did not believe he was owed.
Since moving to West Somerset, Mr Stothard has been involved in a string of different business names, including We Have Delivered It, Inco (IBS) Management and Business Consultants, Summerlands, Carnopy.eu, and Tender First.
One interested party who has tracked Mr Stothard’s known business history since he left school in Lancing, West Sussex, at the age of 16, described him as a ‘moving target’ who used anonymity of the internet and the privacy of accommodation boxes to evade creditors.
The Post has received an extensive dossier on Mr Stothard listing a trail of people said to have been owed money by him.
Prior to moving to live in West Somerset, Mrs Stothard also had many other business names, and one company The AJ Management Company Ltd, was compulsorily wound up by the Official Receiver in Brighton, in July, 2002.
During his time working with The Crier, Mr Stothard used a 07074 premium rate telephone number on his advertising which he claimed was a ‘mobile’ number, and he earned money every time somebody called him on it. The practice stopped when The Crier challenged him on the matter.
He also made claims on his website during 2006 that he was going to be away in France photographing the Tour de France cycle race and in Germany for the football World Cup finals – while somehow he was actually still able to be in Minehead taking photographs for The Crier.
His glossy website contains a gallery of photographs of world leaders and sportsmen, but Mr Stothard carefully avoids actually stating in writing that they were taken by him.
This week, Mr Seale went to police in Minehead to complain about Mr Stothard’s business practices.
The Post will make available to the police the dossier of information it has on Mr Stothard.
Mr Seale said: “I would like to hear from anybody else who has had dealings with Mr Stothard or any of his businesses so that I can draw up as comprehensive a picture of his activities as possible.”

Back to the Future for rural schools : Victorian-style classes feared

SCHOOLS built by the Victorians in some of West Somerset’s rural communities could soon be forced to again deliver teaching in Victorian-style classes.
The step back to a teaching style of 150 years ago could be forced on small schools by funding proposals being considered in the New Year.
It could mean schools such as Exford Church of England First School being reduced to a single class where all the children from the ages of four to nine years were taught together by the school’s only teacher.
Similarly, Dulverton Middle and Community School could find its nine classrooms cut to six, with subsequent redundancies among the teaching staff.
Governors of the two schools are fighting the proposed changes to the way in which funding is allocated to schools throughout Somerset.
The county council is due to decide on January 16 on a package of 11 proposals.
One of those who will be attending that meeting to address councillors is the chairman of the governors of the Federation of Exford and Dulverton Schools, Dr Brian Martin.
The federation, which was only formed in April of this year as a result of county council pressure to cut the costs of running small schools, also includes Dulverton All Saints Church of England First School.
Other schools which have federated under recent county council pressure include Cutcombe and Timberscombe First Schools, as well as Danesfield Middle, Williton St Peter’s First, and Old Cleeve First Schools.
A ‘soft governance federation’ was put in place for Minehead Middle, Porlock St Dubricius, Minehead St Michael’s, and Dunster First Schools.
Crowcombe and Stogumber Primary Schools also federated in a separate move.
Nevertheless, the county council has highlighted the fact that the cost of running its small schools is still in the top 100 of the most expensive schools per pupil in the country.
Dr Martin said the new funding proposals were finance-driven and did not take any account of need to bed in recent federations and make them work properly.
He said the council wanted to spread its education cost per pupil more evenly across all schools and one way of doing so would be to reduce the ‘small schools protection’ which currently guaranteed a minimum of two classes for schools with 60 or fewer pupils.
Dr Martin said the moves would leave schools such as Exford ‘vulnerable’ and could even lead to closure.
He said: “We think that this is a step back to Victorian times almost.
“It really does not pay any heed to the ‘Every Child Matters’ policy that has been pushed forward by the Government.
“And ‘individual learning’ just goes out of the window.
“It puts small rural schools in a very vulnerable position.”
Dr Martin said the knock-on effects could see small and middle schools unable to teach the national curriculum to the right standard, meaning pupils would move on to the West Somerset Community College still requiring to be brought up to the right level of education for their age.
There was a further risk that some West Somerset parents might move to another area in order to secure a better education for their children, or that parents would be put off moving to live in the district, thereby causing a fall in pupil numbers and making schools even more vulnerable.
Dr Martin said some pupils as young as four and five years were already making a journey of 40 minutes to reach schools on Exmoor.
If the schools closed, the only alternative would be an even longer journey to a town school.
He said: “It is not like an urban area where you may be able to close a school and still have reasonable travel times to an alternative. There is no alternative on Exmoor.
“We are making a plea that there is an exception in this area for small rural schools which serve their communities.”
Dr Martin appreciated some schools, such as Danesfield Middle, in Williton, might benefit overall from the proposed changes and it was likely that Somerset’s larger schools would support the new funding regime.
But he said: “We would hope they appreciate that they are part of a whole school system here, where we all feed through to the community college and secondary education, and would want strength in the whole system.”
Dr Martin said making teachers redundant in Dulverton Middle School would result in a loss of specialist skills and make it near-impossible to deliver the school’s highly regarded Exmoor Curriculum.

• Our photograph shows Exford Church of England First School. Photo submitted.

Witness appeal after spate of car crashes leaves one driver critically ill

A SERIES of car crashes across two days on West Somerset roads left a total of six people trapped in wreckage.
The most serious incident occurred at about 6.20 pm on Tuesday, November 27, when a Citroen Saxo and a Mini One travelling in opposite directions collided on the A396 between Dunster and Timberscombe, close to Kittswell Farm.
Police closed the road until 12.30 am on Wednesday, November 28.
Both car drivers were trapped in the wreckage and had to be released by fire and rescue crews using hydraulic cutting gear, a process which took more than an hour.
The driver of the Citroen, a man, suffered serious head injuries and was taken to Derriford Hospital, in Plymouth, where his condition was described as ‘critical’.
The Citroen had been travelling from the Tiverton direction toward Dunster and Mini was being driven from Dunster toward Timberscombe when the accident happened.
Two fire crews from Minehead and a rescue tender from Taunton attended the incident.
Police later appealed for any witnesses to the collision, or anybody else with information about it, to contact the force’s collision investigation unit on 0845 4567000.
Or they could call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, where they do not have to give a name but could receive a reward.
The secure Crimestoppers contact form could also be used, which can be found on the internet at https://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/crimestoppers/ContactForm.aspx.
Another serious incident occurred later on Tuesday, when a vehicle careered off the A39 and into a field between Williton and West Quantoxhead.
A man and a woman were trapped in the wreckage and it took fire and rescue crews working with hydraulic cutting equipment nearly two-and-a-half hours to free the pair.
Both casualties then had to be individually carried on boards in a fire service Land Rover across a field to waiting ambulances before they could be taken to hospital.
Two fire engines from Williton and a rescue tender from Taunton attended the scene of the accident, which happened a few minutes before midnight.
No other vehicle was involved in the crash.
Previously, on Monday, November 26, two people were reported trapped in a crash between two vehicles on the A39 at Carhampton.
It happened at almost 6.30 pm but when rescue services arrived on the scene the two casualties had already been freed from the damaged vehicles.
One fire engine from the Minehead station and a rescue tender from Taunton attended the incident and the crews made both vehicles safe and assisted police with lighting and removing debris from the road.