[2024] UKUT 131 (AAC)

The claimant was addicted to drugs and alcohol and also suffered from long-term depression. Although initially claiming jobseeker’s allowance, in early 2014 a DWP official referred him for an ESA assessment as he was attending his Job Centre in an intoxicated state. The claimant subsequently attended a treatment centre for his addiction and was placed in supported housing. Later in 2014 he suffered a relapse and began to fund his addictions, including cocaine use, by knowingly handling and selling on stolen bicycles as part of a criminal conspiracy. The claimant was arrested in a London market in possession of stolen bikes. Subsequently, a DWP fraud investigator noted that in the period of just over a year between 1 October 2014 and 29 November 2015 the claimant had deposited £29,911.78 in cash into his bank accounts. At that time his only known sources of income were social security benefits in the order of £6,500 a year. In October 2016 the claimant was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for offences related to the bicycle handling conspiracy, of which he served just over two years. Separately the DWP instigated criminal charges for benefit fraud, but it later discontinued those proceedings.