Shashi Bacheta who amassed almost £50,000 in state benefits claiming she was depressed and bedridden with a bad back was regularly scuba diving

Shashi Bacheta who amassed almost £50,000 in state benefits claiming she was depressed and bedridden with a bad back was in fact regularly scuba diving off Africa from her boyfriend’s £100,000 yacht.Shashi Bacheta told the authorities she was jobless, felt “like a social outcast” and needed “24-hour care” because she lived alone, was unable to get out of bed and suffered depression.But yesterday the 52-year-old was warned she faces jail after it emerged she was actually managing a post office, living with her partner and sailing thousands of miles around the world to Kenya, South Africa and Tenerife on his yacht Kismet.The mother of one, from Fforestfach, Swansea, was caught when investigators tracked down the yacht on a blog and found a picture of her lounging on a deck with lover Jeffrey Cole.She falsely claimed disability living allowance, income support and incapacity benefit for six years between 2002 and 2008. She received £49,700 in total, according to the Department of Work and Pensions, which, with Swansea Council, began investigating her claims two years ago.
Fraud investigators found that – far from being unemployed – Bacheta worked as a manager at the Rheidol Avenue Post Office in Clase, near Swansea’s DVLA.They also found that she was not living on her own in various flats, for which she was claiming housing benefit, across the city. She was in fact living with her 58-year-old partner at his spacious home at Gower Road in Swansea’s upmarket Sketty district.Cole, who formerly worked in the shop-fitting business and who owned three properties in Swansea, was the Postmaster at the Rheidol Avenue Post Office with Bacheta acting as his manager.Suspicions were aroused about the lifestyle of Bacheta, who was seen going to the Swansea Yacht and Sub Aqua Club with Cole. Nobody there realised she was claiming benefits and that Cole was helping her.Jeff Fish, a Swansea Council fraud investigator, decided to trawl the internet for references to Cole’s bought-from-new £100,000 – Beneteau-make yacht Kismet. He encountered a blog being written by a retired South Wales policewoman and her husband while aboard their yacht.The couple, on a round- the-world trip, had no idea Cole and Bacheta were benefit fraudsters. They met them off Gran Canaria and mentioned Kismet’s name on the blog.Mr Fish said: “We also downloaded a picture of them at the couple’s yacht on Gran Canaria with Shashi Bacheta looking quite well.“We later carried out a search of their home and found PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructor) records relating to Bacheta scuba diving off Mombasa, Kenya.“We also found they had been in their yacht off the coast of South Africa.”Bacheta and Cole were due to begin an expensive 15-day trial at Swansea Crown Court yesterday. But they changed their pleas at the last minute to guilty to a variety of benefit fraud charges.Cole admitted four charges including false accounting over council tax benefit and housing benefit plus dishonestly obtaining bank credits, all in relation to Bacheta’s false claims.Bacheta pleaded guilty to 16 charges including fraud, false accounting, obtaining benefits by deception and obtaining money transfers by deception.Afterwards, the DWP said Bacheta’s daughter, 28-year-old Anju Bacheta, had already pleaded guilty to fraud relating to her telling the authorities she worked 35 hours per week as her mother’s carer, when she did not.The judge adjourned sentence yesterday for three weeks to allow reports into the defendants’ backgrounds to be drawn up and he granted them bail on condition their surrendered their passports.But Judge Huw Davies warned Cole and Shashi Bacheta (Anju Bacheta was not present in court) that “indicative guidelines” suggested a custodial sentence.
Francis Jones, for Cole, told the court his client may apply for leave to travel to Spain to oversee the sale of his yacht for which a buyer had been found.Melanie Surridge, officer in charge of the joint Swansea Council and DWP investigation, said: “It’s quite staggering that this lady claimed to be bedridden yet was regularly on her partner’s yacht and able to partake in active sports like scuba diving.