On Govt Benefits, Yet Scored as an Online Poker Player – September 18th, 2009
Alan Forsyth, an at times successful 36-year-old online poker player who nevertheless continued to draw government health benefits in the UK, faced his comeuppance this week in a Norwich court.
The magistrate was told that the benefits fraudster had cheated the taxpayer out of thousands of pounds, and had six secret bank accounts loaded with winnings from online poker. Forsyth once won $49 000 in a single day gambling online – yet was claiming he could not afford to pay his council tax.
Last week he pleaded guilty to seven charges of benefit fraud dating from October 2003 when he first claimed to have no financial reserves, although he actually had two bank accounts that he did not declare. While at the time they had “relatively little” in terms of a positive balance, he used the accounts to deposit the winnings from his online poker efforts, continuing to claim the benefit fraudulently until June 2007, by which time his number of undeclared accounts had reached six, with two accounts opened in 2005, one in 2006 and another in 2007.
Throughout this period, Forsyth was registered as unable to work with ME, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, with which he was diagnosed with in 1997. Forsyth claimed that his medical condition had militated against him filling in the benefit claim forms properly, but prosecutor Yvonne Blake suggested to him: “If you have the concentration to play poker to the extent that you can win $49 000 in a single day, you have the concentration to fill out a form.”
In total, Forsyth is alleged to have fraudulently claimed GBP 3 706 in council tax benefits, a figure he has since paid back in full. In mitigation, it was pointed out that Forsyth stayed in work for five years after his initial diagnosis, and was described as “hard working.” Forsyth’s legal representative said that he was not a well man, suffering greatly from fatigue and pain, and was without the ability to work again.
“He got stuck in his own web of deceit. He did start winning money and more accounts were opened. He was scared it would be backtracked to the original offence.” Magistrates ordered Forsyth to pay a total of GBP 1 400 in fines – GBP 200 for each offence, as well as GBP 15 surcharge and GBP 150 towards prosecution costs.
Presiding Magistrate Howard Gill said: “You’ve got seven charges of making a false statement. This took place over a long period of time and was premeditated. There was a risk of substantial loss of money to the tax payer.”
