I honestly have not left anything out, although I did not attend the actual court hearings so whether anything that was discussed there was left out I have no idea. My guess is that it was a fair amount of money over an even longer amount of time and they just saw him as someone that purposefully had done it. He doesn't mind really, he was just thankful that it didn't come to what we were fearing. Now we just have to struggle to pay everything back, but we are getting by just. And the Doctors/Nurses have finally got their act together and realized that he can't have appointments before 4pm, they're now taking care of his legs more seriously. He seems to be attending appointments to have new bandages and such every other day.

Hi everyone, sorry to keep you all waiting with any updates. Well thankfully, he did not go to prison, however he did get a fine, a suspended sentence for 2 years (for a 12 week sentence) and a curfew with a tag for 3 months between the times of 10am and 4pm, which is awkward since his legs have gotten worse recently and is in need of seeing the nurse, and the doctors/nurses won't come out, we did get district nurses over and they said to make an appointment, which we tried to do but none were available and they were not going to come out, which is a major pain. Despite that I am over the moon that he didn't get sent to prison. I'd like to thank all of you for the advice given and I hope mine and my dad's situation is helpful to anyone else.

It's just so hard, I've now been put on anti-depressants because of this and because of other situations, like I don't feel like I dealt with mum's death very well. I have good days and bad days, good days I feel a bit more positive of the situation and all my friends help, everyone we've spoken to feels that prison is unlikely, even you guys have said so. But it's convincing my mind that things will be alright, on bad days it just goes round and round in my head "what if everyone is wrong?" "what will I do if dad does go?" because he really won't handle it well, even for a short time. He's mentioned to me before, and mentioned to the probation officer, that life situations have made him feel like he wanted to take his own life, and what stops him is myself and my brother, this is something that scares me too. Then images of having to move again, dad being separated from us when he needs his family around him, he doesn't have a social life, he never goes out anywhere so most of the time he just has us. I fear things would spiral out of control.

Update: The other day myself and my dad went to see the probation officer. I think it went well - we talked in depth about finances, family issues etc...in the end she said to dad that because of no prior convictions there's not a lot of options they have in regards to punishment, however she didn't rule out prison, but mentioned about a possible curfew and tagging, and a fine. When she asked dad about prison he mentioned that it might finish him off in regards to his mental state, but is fully compliant with any other punishment going. They also know that it would mean the council would have to re-house us if he is sent down. Although it was a good meeting I still fear the worst, I think that's due to my anxiety and depression, one thing that was embarrassing was that I couldn't keep from crying in front of her, I tried to control it but it just overwhelmed me.

I see, thank you for clearing that up. I think the reason why we tend to think the worst is because we've had other things happen to us that have just seemed like something out of a TV drama so we sort of expect worst case scenario. @seanamarts thank you, I think that would be the case as well, just hope that if the fine is big they won't want it all at once!

Hello everyone I have an update. Well as expected he was unfortunately found guilty, because he simply didn't have the proof to show that the man he spoke to all those years ago existed, all he had was an old address but since he and his wife had died and my father didn't know his children or where they are now, it just wasn't enough. Oh and it wasn't actually taken to crown court, they decided to have it at magistrates instead, not sure why they changed their minds on that but they did. They did not sentence him right away because "It would not be conducive" I'm wondering what they mean by that, I'm guessing a good sign? The solicitor still maintains that a custodial sentence is unlikely because of his ill health, no prior convictions or gotten in any other trouble, and the fact that the council tax side is currently being consistently paid each month, that he has said on more than one occasion he fully intends to pay everything back, and if he did go to prison all his benefits would be stopped and therefore they would not get paid anything, and it seems like they do just want their money back. Before he goes back to court for sentencing on March 1st, he has to see a probation officer to go through medical records, what money he has coming in and what other sort of debts - all needs to be seen, and to just check out my Dad's character, apparently they can advice judges on what sort of sentence would be best. I can't help but think that although everyone says prison isn't likely, I'm really hoping that it doesn't happen, he really isn't a well man and he'd be beside himself if he were taken from his home, and so will we, it also wouldn't make any sense for them to do that other than to make an example, which would be cutting off their nose to spite their face in a way. Did you know it costs £40,000 A WEEK to send someone to prison? Plus he'd need taking care of due to his medication and would need his bandages on his legs every day. I know they can't take his family into consideration since we're all adults, but for us it would also mean having to quickly find a new home since it's dad that gets housing. So we'd all be effected, in more ways than one.

Merry Christmas everyone. Dad went to court a few days ago, they were very nice to him and accomodating to his needs. After talking it through with our solicitor he pleaded not guilty. Which means that it does have to go to Crown Court but not because they feel its that serious, apparently they have to if you plead not guilty; it's just procedure. It was advised because the solicitor feels that it was done by mistake. I have calmed down a lot, I hope that the anxiety doesn't flare up again. But every one of our friends including our solicitor says that a prison sentence is highly unlikely, what with his mitigating circumstances and the fact that we're paying it back already. My friend also pointed out that he's not actually being done for fraud but for possible dishonesty, I didn't know there was a difference, but apparently it's not as bad as the former, still not great, but if anyone can explain the difference? He goes back to court on Febuary 4th. I'll keep you posted!

Sorry I didn't reply about this, totally forgot! Well it was a total waste of time, Dad came home and said he wasn't even seen, they were "too busy" to see him that day, he said everyone was running around trying to get other things done, including his solicitor, the judges and clerks were late to court too. It was a farce basically, so they gave Dad a bail slip and told him to come back on the 21st, absolute joke!

Thank you. It's only been in the past couple of days I've gotten my anxiety under control, it's still quite scary and I think on the day my nerves might get the better of me but I gotta stay strong for my Dad!

Just an update - we saw our solicitor and it seemed to go well. He said what everyone else I've spoken to has said - prison is unlikely but he doesn't want to commit to anything. But because of mitigating circumstances it is unlikely. I've heard the Judges where I'm from are quite fair. He also said that the monthly repayments we previously agreed on are far too high and will try to get a lower amount, because it is hard to live off the rest of the money we have coming in. All of the paperwork was taken and is being looked through, we will be expecting to hear from him soon before court, and on the day will be represented by someone.

Thank you - it's so hard though, my anxiety has sky rocketed I even thought I did something wrong, when my friend came over tonight and had a look at my paper work she said I was totally fine and haven't done anything wrong at all, it's just me overthinking things because of my father's troubles. I'm happy we now have a solicitor, but I'm still not eating or sleeping right. It's hard to tell your brain to shut up when you're so wound up and you just feel like crying all the time =(

From what I understand it, it's council tax and housing. But we've already arranged with the council tax people to pay them back a certain amount each month, which we've already started, we made the first payment a couple of days ago.

Okay thanks for all your advice. I had my accountant friend come over this evening, and it's actually no where near as bad as I thought, when I did the jobs last year I was only in CA not IS, that was after (as I didn't know I could claim it) so I'm actually alright there after all, PHEW! I think the reason I got into such an awful panic is because my dad, on another thread I made, is in trouble. And I have been getting major anxiety attacks because of it, where my brain tells me "arghhh you did this wrong and that wrong and what if this what if that" so I was looking into things too closely and not thinking straight when my brain can't process the information. My friend said I'm absolutely fine. And that it was infact declared after all. However, now that I do have IS, any work I do I must declare and will declare to them, if it's over the amount allowed. I'm sorry I was in such a state of confusion and wasting your time, due to other situations going on my brain isn't firing on all cylinders it seems. I need to see a doctor.

I'm sorry I mean that I looked up the amount I was allowed to be paid as I wasn't told that. But I swear to you I honestly didn't know that work had to be declared paid or unpaid.

Hi. I've never claimed housing or anything else while on CA and IS. I was told if I worked under 16 hours and under a certain limit of money that I didn't need to declare, my god don't tell I did have to? I seriously only took the advice of the person at the Job Centre, I'm also confused because their payslips are confusing, they're saying they paid me so much when I do not remember ever getting that much out of them, usually a day of work with them is £55, the payslips write down the rate of pay for the hours (usually 7.5) and somehow makeout that I deserve over £200, but I think that averages out over a month if I work more than one day, so I may well be within my rights to earn it, but I'm not 100% sure and started to panic a lot.