Prisons Politico – Ken Clarke

A man jailed for a vicious assault conspired with his family to claim thousands of pounds worth of benefits – from behind prison bars!

Mark Redfern, 33, worked the scam with his brother Paul and mum Eileen Daly netting more than £2,000 of income support while serving a six-month prison sentence.

Redfern continued to claim benefits and his mum and brother would collect his fortnightly cheque from his flat at Lowton Court, Moston, before faking his signature and cashing it at the post office.

Redfern was in jail at the time for attacking a man in the street. But the family’s scam was rumbled after prison staff became suspicious while listening in on Redfern’s calls to home. They contacted police who began an investigation with the Department for Work and Pensions.

Officers then found more of the forged cheques when they searched Redfern’s flat. Redfern appeared from custody to face the benefit fraud charges at Manchester magistrates court as he is currently serving a four-year sentence for another assault. He was part of a trio who subjected a 28-year-old victim to an horrendous three-hour ordeal where he was beaten, whipped with a belt, burnt with cigarettes and sexually degraded. Paul Darnborough, prosecuting, told the court Redfern had fraudulently claimed a total of £2,044.70 between June and October last year while serving a sentence at HMP Wymott in Leyland.

He pleaded guilty to eleven charges of benefit fraud and was given an extra four weeks jail time to run consecutively from his current sentence. Eileen Daly, 55, of Charlestown Road, Blackley, Manchester, pleaded guilty to eight charges of benefit fraud and Paul Redfern, 30, of the same address, to one count of benefit fraud. Their cases were adjourned for reports to be prepared and they will return for sentencing on June 12.

Tim McArdle, defending, told the court that Redfern had asked his family to continue cashing the cheques while he was in jail to pay for the rent on his flat. He said: “The offences were orchestrated by Mark Redfern to try and keep his flat going because he was desperate to keep hold of it.” Vernon Sanderson, area fraud investigator for north-west England, told the M.E.N: “Far from learning his lesson, Redfern continues to perpetrate crimes. We are particularly grateful to GMP for their help in this case.”

Mark Leech editor of Converse, the national newspaper for prisoners in England and Wales said: “Doesn’t Ken Clarke and Ian Duncan-Smith ever talk to each other – Clarke is in charge of jails and Duncan-Smith in charge of benefits – haven’t they cottoned on to the fact that they need to know where each other is up to?

“This guy only got caught because he said too much on the phone – how many others with more careful lips are raking in a fortune while locked up?

“The fact is that when it comes to Government the right hand doesn’t even know there is a left hand – let alone what its doing.”