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Asian Network presenter avoids jail after benefit fraud

BBC Asian Network presenter Lubna Qazi has avoided jail after wrongly claiming Carer’s Allowance for her sick husband.

Lubna, aka DJ Kanwal, did not declare her job to the Department for Work and Pensions.

According to the��Daily Mail, she swindled �18,014 in benefits by not declaring her job as presenter of two weekend Bollywood music shows on the BBC’s Asian Network radio station.

The presenter earned nearly �25 per hour working for the corporation for nine hours at weekends, exceeding the upper limit of �95 a week for the allowance.

But Recorder Collingwood Thompson QC described it as an “exceptional” case and sentenced her to a 12-month conditional discharge.

He said: “I have to sentence you on the basis you knew you were not entitled to the benefits.

“But this is an exceptional case.

“The unusual circumstances of this case concern your personal circumstances and the care of your husband.

“It is clear he suffered a massive stroke in 2002 which left him about 75 per cent brain damaged, paralysed and unable to speak, and you have nursed him with devotion since 2002.

“It seems to me that but for your care and attention your husband would be in care along time ago.

“For these reasons I am going to take exceptional course and am going to conditionally discharge you for 12 months.”

Qazi was also ordered to pay back the money she had falsely claimed.

Qazi has paid back �600, leaving �17,414 outstanding.