A failing businessman who posed as his dead father to con the benefits agency out of nearly £22,000 has been jailed for eight months.
Hassan Mirza had mounted up £30,000 in debt when he decided to start claiming benefits for his father more than three years after he died. Mirza, 40, initially claimed he had power of attorney for his father, used his details to fill out claims, and then pretended to be the dead man during phone calls.
Sheriff John Rafferty told him: "This was an offence that was deliberately and clearly planned by you. It was not the sort of case that the court sometimes hears, where a claim was properly made and then circumstances change.
