Hi, The offences were committed in 2004, I served custodial sentences from 2005-2007 and the sentence expiry dates were feb 2011. Can you/anyone advise as to where I can get "free" legal advice as although people are suggesting £20k is a lot to be earning I can assure you it is not. I have decided the best course of action is to email back the investigator detailing the all the events and reasons for them admitting the frauds and offering to repay as well as being prepared for a fine/community order. Is there anyway to avoid a custodial sentence if I explain the fact I am in full time work and the impact it would have on my life as opposed to repaying the money over time. Also when I cancelled the benefit I subsequently moved to a different address with my girlfriend, will they create any problems for her given that she immediately declared it to the council tax to remove her single person allowance. I am quite prepared for the consequences of my actions but need to ensure that she isn't affected, e.g when I am prosecuted in court will they list her address in the paper? and will it affect her mortgage/other issues if so I would prefer to put down I am living at my parents address as it shouldn't matter should it? Thank you for any help, I just want to be sure I am taking the best course of action before I send the email to the investigator and start the chain of events leading to prosecution. regards

Hi, I am in a very awkward situation, I informed the housing benefit that I no longer required benefit as I was leaving my current address. I assumed this would be all they needed. However they are now investigating. Basically this is what happened: I was made redundant in Jan earning approx £20k. My rent was £470 pcm inc bills in a "shared" house where the only sharing was a kitchen, we effectively had our own bed sits. I claimed Job seekers and housing benefit. I received the full housing beneift of £470 for 13 weeks then they lowered it to £50 p/w as they claimed i was in shared accomodation. I commenced full time employment on £20k March 5th, whilst claiming housing benefit. I was also still claiming Job seekers for 2 months whilst working. I stopped claiming job seekers around May and continued to claim housing benefit til August. How do I now proceed as I fear it will all come out and I will be sent to jail. The irony is my life is now in a very good position relative to years ago and I am prepared to pay the money back over time if I can avoid jail. The reason I claimed and continued to do so was that whilst redundant i built up various debts with loan sharks and have been struggling to pay them back. Will they take this into account? Any help gratefully appreciated. As an aside I have a past criminal conviction for fraud (obtaining loans by deception 2 x 1 years imprisonment and armed robber 4 years all convicted at the same time) does this make matters worse?