SWANSEA, UK (20 Mar 2009) — Shashi Bacheta, 52, was sentenced to 21 months at Swansea Crown Court, while her boyfriend Jeffrey Cole, 58, received nine months. Bacheta, of Swansea, admitted 16 counts relating to benefit fraud of about £40,000. Cole, 58, admitted four charges worth about £12,000. Bacheta claimed she was so ill that she could not even get out of bed, when she was scuba diving off the coast of Kenya. She even posed for holiday photographs and kept a log of her diving exploits, which was later used as proof of her fraud. While cruising around the Canary Islands on their yacht Kismet, she claimed housing benefit, council tax relief, and disability living allowances. Passing sentence, Judge Huw Davies told her: "You were in perfectly good health and took active holidays to travel so much of the world. "You went on safari and sailing the seas in a private yacht. "You were guilty of a set of cynical offences of defrauding the benefit system." The judge said the pair had been living together for five years and "taking holidays in some considerable style". He told Cole: "You bought a yacht for £100,000 having sold some of your properties. You set off to enjoy your personal wealth and money extracted from public funds." Swansea Crown Court heard the couple were caught after posing for photographs while their yacht was moored in Gran Canaria. Two retired police officers, enjoying a similar around-the-world adventure, snapped the couple before posting the pictures on their blog. | | Fraud investigators pulled the plug on dive 'n sail scammers Shashi Bacheta, 52, and Jeffrey Cole, 58, and Judge Huw Davies scuttled them in prison. Fraud investigators, who had become suspicious of the pair, discovered the blog while searching on the internet for the Kismet. The court heard Cole was working as a postmaster in Swansea, and Bacheta managed the newsagent side of the business. by Richard Savill |
