Kevin Crawford, currently detained in one of HM Prisons
Kevin and Betty Crawford, of Childwall, Liverpool, owners of a GL1500SE and described in Court as active Members of a GoldWing Club, were sentenced to imprisonment earlier this week when they were both convicted of Benefits Fraud. Between them they had fraudulently claimed nearly £50,000 over the past three years. They started claiming benefits 17 years ago.
But Fraud Investigators were reported to have spotted them on their Club’s website enjoying a biking lifestyle and this triggered suspicion. They were subsequently observed riding their bike together and camping at a biking event. Kevin was also seen working up a ladder fitting windows; he has been running his own business as well as claiming benefits for some years.
Kevin was supposed to be barely able to walk because of a damaged knee cap and Elizabeth, as she was referred to in Court, claimed to be unable to walk or climb stairs or even to go to the toilet without assistance because of arthritis. Yet they attended a series of biking events, some of which they were said to have helped organise.
Kevin was sentenced to 18 months in jail, Betty got a suspended sentence of 6 months.
The story of their Court appearance made all the national newspapers, pictures of them on their bike were made widely published and much was made of their privledged biking lifestyle. There are pictures on YouTube as well. Google “kevin crawford goldwing” if you would like to see the reports and images. The Daily Mail website provides facilities for the public to comment and there have been lots of comments.
This couple were condemned as cheats by the Judge and they have also been condemned on biker’s forums since the story broke.
Betty Crawford, who received a suspended prison sentence
Who in the UK GoldWing Community will have any sympathy for them? Maybe their friends in their Club will feel sorry that they have been so greedy, and of course so stupid as to do this thinking they would continue getting away with it while rding around on a GoldWing.
Most Wingers work long and hard to earn the money to buy their bikes and they pay taxes on their earnings, same as everyone else. There can be little doubt that this couple have done the reputation of Wingers among bikers and in the Community as a whole no good at all. Nor of course have they done anything for the standing of their Club, which was named in Court, nor its camping events.
The Crawfords face further legal proceedings to recover what they have fraudulently claimed in July, so their £10,000 savings will be at risk. Maybe their GL1500SE will be confiscated or have to be sold off too. Maybe they will be forced to sell their house at a time when they will get a low price for it as well.
And Kevin will miss most of the 2009 biking season, even if he serves only a third of his sentence, which is apparently the norm for jail terms under four years. Of course he might get released even earlier because of the current shortage of prison places, lots of prisoners are.
Kevin & Betty enjoying happier times
In another recent news item it was revealed that prisoners who are released early are paid £168 per week to compensate them for the value of the free board and lodgings they are losing by being released early. This compares with Job Seekers Allowance of £60.50 if you’re over 25, otherwise £47.95, which you get providing you’ve paid the qualifying contributions.
Of course the Benefits Agency (or whatever it’s called nowadays) will only be able to claim back the benefits they can prove were obtained fraudulently, so presumably they won’t be going for the seventeen years worth of benefits Kevin has had, just the last three, while they’ve been watching him. Kevin was presumably still unable to walk much when he started his window business six years ago, so he’ll get to keep the benefits he claimed then, even if he could work up ladders by the time the Fraud Investigators started taking an interest in him.
So it’s a tough life being a caught-out benefit fraudster, even if he does also have human rights. For the time being Kevin is in jail.
Is anyone going to be rushing to help this couple put their tent up if they turn up at another GoldWing camping event when Kevin gets out? Maybe not.
Well I wonder if they will be expelled then?
In answer to your question Stuart, yes I will give them a hand if they need help with their tent.
As members of Cheshire and Merseyside Kevin and Betty made both Colette and I most welcome when I moved back up North in 2001.
I became a member Cheshire and Merseyside but after a year moved over to NWW, but was still treated as a good friend by them both.
When NWW died in 2008, I returned to Cheshire and was made most welcome, lots of leg pulling but definitely most welcome.
So I have known them both for 8 years and Kevin’s firm even installed a conservatory for Colette and I. In all that time I had no idea what was going on with regards disability payments.
I know the courts have judged them for their crimes. I will only judge them on their previous actions.
They are both guilty of being good friends.
Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget.
Stevie C-D
Good comment, thank you. I respect your loyalty to friends whom you have known as decent people, and especialy your willingness to make your supportive comment publicly on this Blog.
As I was writing this Article I had very mixed feelings myself, not least because I have known a Winger for some years who did some bird. He got caught and paid the price before I knew him and I only learned about it long after I met him. I didn’t think any differently of him after I found out about it than I did before.
Maybe we tend to think of this type of crime as victimless and maybe even something which is fair game to try to get away with, like not declaring income for tax, or paying for goods or services in cash to avoid paying VAT. I met a retired Customs Fraud Investigator who was quite happy to do that when it came to paying his own bills, yet he had to take care who knew where he lived in retirement because in his time he had put some very dangerous people behind bars. So on one level at least, few if any of us are entitled to adopt a tone of moral outrage about fiddling the system. It’s not in the same league as predatory paedophilia, that’s for sure. I don’t see it as any worse (or any better) than MPs fiddling their expenses to get as much as possible out of the system as possible – they know what they have been doing has been morally wrong and that’s why lots of them are dreading the details coming out. People see an open opportunity to exploit a situation and they do it.
But Kevin did claim benefits for 17 years and he did it by telling great whoppers rather than little porkies, at a time when he also had enough about himself to run his own business. And it seems more than likely that he was claiming them falsely for more than just the last three of those years. And when he did get caught, he got his Club’ name in the newspapers in a bad way as well as his own. So I don’t have any sympathy for the sentence he got or the fact that his assests will be confiscated to recover as much as possible of what he fiddled.
But I would not hold it against him after he has done his time and paid back what he fiddled and I wouldn’t try to stop him joining my own GoldWing club once he’s done that either. It was the other news story I referred to, which may not apply to Kevin at all, that really got up my nose. The fact that prisoners who are being released early because of overcrowding gets three times as much as a Job Seeker because they are losing their free board and lodgings in prison is really crazy.
Do not do the crime if you can’t do the time,but once he has paid his due’s he has a clean slate imo,but will other wingers in his club feel the same way?
Kevin was sentenced to 18 months in jail, Betty got a suspended sentence of 6 months.
£50,000 divided by 3 years = £16,666 a year.
Multiply by 17 years = £283,333.
Not bad wages for a couple of spongers.
A soldier returning home after being injured whilst serving Queen & Country during a tour of duty with serious injuries, living on an army pension might see things differently.
Perhaps the next 17 years on the minimum wage working with underprivileged children or the socialy disadvantaged sector would make some people feel that the balance has been redressed.