Former URIAH HEEP Vocalist Charged With Benefit Fraud

The Herst Advertiser is reporting that former URIAH HEEP vocalist John Lawton landed in court on charges of benefit fraud when he failed to declare almost £50,000 (approx. $87,000) in savings.

Lawton, of North Cottages in Napsbury, St Albans, was, in the late '70s, the lead singer of the heavy rock band who are still big in Germany and the Netherlands. More recently he had formed THE JOHN LAWTON BAND who churn out retro-rock hits on the European gig circuit.

Lawton appeared in St Albans Magistrates' Court last Wednesday with his hair styled in a lurid-yellow mullet — popular with rock stars and footballers in the '70s — to face joint charges with is his wife Iris Lawton. They pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining council tax benefit by making false representations. They had defrauded St Albans District Council of £1,052.

The court heard how the couple, both aged 59, had put in a claim for council tax benefit on the basis that Mrs Lawton was not in work and that Lawton himself received only a low income working as a musician. They described themselves as having "fallen on hard times".

They also told the council that they had one joint Lloyds TSB bank account. However they failed to own up to a Cahoot savings account which had £49,400 in it, a Cahoot current account with £998 and another Lloyds TSB account containing a minimal amount of cash which was used for transactions involving Lawton's band.

The accounts were in Mrs Lawton's name, but during interviews with council officers they claimed that the money in the savings account had been put aside for their daughter after the sale of their house in Hendon.

However, further investigations revealed that there had been substantial transactions between all three accounts.

Read more at The Herts Advertiser.