An Evri delivery driver who falsely claimed almost a quarter of a million pounds in benefits by claiming he couldn’t bend over has been jailed.
Paul Churchman told the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) he could barely walk without being in ‘agonising pain’, and chalked up £235,000 of benefits alongside his wife Gemma, whom he roped into the scam.
But Maidstone Crown Court heard that he was hauling parcels as a self-employed courier with Evri, formerly Hermes, at the same time – for which he was paid £403,000 over 11 years, or £36,000 a year.
Between January 2013 and January 2024 Churchman and his wife received £105,786 of housing benefit, £45,411 of income support and £38,404 in Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
They also claimed £24,562 of Universal Credit, £9,589 in Jobseekers’ Allowance and £8,081 in Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), and received a council tax reduction of £3,340.
To date, the 49-year-old and his wife, 42, have repaid just £3,500, with a payment plan set up at the rate of £250 a month.
At their sentencing hearing on Wednesday, a judge told the pair they had swindled ‘every taxpayer, council tax payer and business tax payer’ through their dishonesty.
Furthermore, the court was told Paul Churchman had committed similar offences in the past, and in 2010 had been jailed for 15 months for stealing from an employer.
Paul Churchman roped his wife Gemma into a benefits scam that saw them claim almost a quarter of a million pounds in social security
Churchman told the DWP that he could barely walk or bend over while delivering parcels as a self-employed Evri courier
While Mr Churchman is now behind bars, Gemma Churchman has been spared jail after her husband took full responsibility for their collective actions.
Prosecutor Kiera Vinall detailed how ‘notwithstanding Mr Churchman’s income’, the husband and wife made ‘several claims for different sums of social security benefit’ which resulted in payments they were not entitled to receive.
‘In the course of his application he represented that despite his employment, his wife prepared his meals because he could not bend over to get pots and pans from the cupboard,’ Ms Vinall told the court.
‘In relation to personal care, he said he needed help getting in and out of the bath and on some days he said his back seized up such that he needed help going to the toilet and struggled to walk 10 to 20m [11 to 22 yards] without the movement bringing on agonising pain.
‘All of those representations were untrue and contributed to payments in personal independence allowance of £38,404.’
Churchman had ‘many opportunities to correct the claims’, she added, but chose not to – and then involved his wife in the fraud.
She filled out claims for income support, Universal Credit and council tax reduction, claiming that her husband did not have a job.
She later told the authorities the claims were not fraudulent from the outset, while Paul Churchman, who has 11 previous convictions for 27 offences, took responsibility for their dishonesty.
Nadia Semlali, defending the couple, asked that they both be allowed to walk free with suspended sentences, telling the court they had acted ‘out of desperation’ while struggling to make ends meet and look after their children.
Churchman, she said, had been in ‘substantial debt’ when he made the majority of the fraudulent applications. He had not been working when he made his first benefit claim but later became self-employed.
‘The defendants were in a dire situation. They make no excuse for their actions and fully accept their roles. They are deeply remorseful and ashamed,’ Ms Semlali said.
‘They were losing their home – they had bailiffs knocking at their door because of all the debt incurred. They knew he was earning and that deceiving the DWP is a very serious offence.
‘However, the money he was earning was to make ends meet and to pay back some of the debt they had incurred. It was an act of desperation.
‘They are really trying to turn their life around and refrain from this kind of behaviour. Their children are their paramount consideration.’
Paul Churchman has been jailed after admitting a litany of offences tied to the benefit fraud – but his wife was spared jail
The lawyer defending the couple told the court they had acted out of desperation after Mr Churchman built up a large amount of debt
She added of Gemma Churchman: ‘She has learnt her lesson and [Paul] feels very guilty for what he has involved her in, and the potential jeopardy they now both face.’
Paul Churchman pleaded guilty to three offences of failing to notify a change in circumstances, two of making a dishonest representation to obtain benefit, one of fraud and one of making a false representation to obtain benefit.
Gemma Churchman admitted two offences of failing to notify a change in circumstances, one of making a dishonest representation to obtain benefit, one of fraud and one of making a false representation to obtain benefit.
Ms Semlali also argued that Paul Churchman’s diagnosis of ADHD made him prone to impulsivity and acting ‘on the spur of the moment’.
But in considering sentence, Recorder Matthew Hellens rejected this notion given that the offending occurred over more than a decade.
‘On each occasion, if you were acting with impulsivity, you would have had an opportunity to step back and change what you had done,’ he told Churchman.
‘You involved your wife in what you did. She too could have helped you or demonstrated to you the decisions you were making [were wrong], and you chose not to put right those things you had done in the course of your criminal behaviour.
‘So while I’m alive very much to the fact of your diagnosis, I cannot see it impacted the decisions you made that led to the pattern of offending in this matter.’
Jailing Churchman for three years, he told the fraudster that he had abused his position of trust in his marriage by involving his wife, who had no previous convictions.
‘Not only did you take from the people of this country a total sum of £235,000, you pulled your wife into criminality,’ the judge said.
‘You had, shortly before this matter, received sentences for dishonesty and, it appears, in relation to claims as well. You knew with open eyes what you were doing.
‘It’s one thing to have made the fraudulent claims that you have and be dishonest in the way you have, but to bring your wife into that circle of criminality is something I think you will pay the price for for the rest of your days.’
Gemma Churchman was handed an 18-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, an order to undertake 25 days of rehabilitation activity requirements and £1,000 in prosecution costs.
She broke down crying in the dock on hearing that her husband was going to jail.
