Benefit cheat told to pay back more than £42,000
A MARRIED woman who pretended to be a single mum so she could claim more than £42,000 in benefits has been told to repay the cash.
Between January 1995 and April 2008, Jacqueline Needham claimed she was living alone. She was sharing a house with her husband, David.
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Derby Crown Court
During that time she claimed £42,094 in income support and £3,709 in council tax benefit to which she was not entitled.
Sentencing the 42-year-old, Judge David Pugsley described the mother's crime as "despicable" and "dishonest".
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He said: "The welfare state was the embodiment of the aspirations of people who had seen the desperate misery of people in the depression of the 1930s. There was a yearning for a different sort of society. People like you have cynically and callously disregarded that."
Derby Crown Court heard there had been several occasions over the years when Needham could have come clean about her living arrangements while filling in income support claim forms.
But instead she maintained she was a single mother, having split from her husband.
Henry Davies, prosecuting, said: "She now accepts she had never separated from her husband and was never a single parent and that her claim was false from the outset."
In mitigation, Simon Eckersley said Needham was a woman of previously good character who had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
He said: "She and her husband recognise they have an obligation to the state to pay it back."
Since January last year, Needham has been paying back £150 a month towards the dishonestly claimed income support and has now paid off £2,000 of the £42,094 she owes.
She has also paid off about £800 of the £3,709 council tax overpayments.
She pleaded guilty to dishonestly claiming money and falsifying documents.
Judge Pugsley sentenced her to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years.
He said the fact that she had owned up about the council tax overpayments, which led to the discovery of the income support fraud, had influenced his decision.
But he made it clear that he wanted to see "every single penny" of the money repaid, saying: "If it takes 20 years, it takes 20 years – it's better than being in prison."
Needham is now expected to remortgage her home in Atlow Road, Chaddesden, to help pay off the money.
Anti-Fraud Minister Helen Goodman said: "Benefit thieves take money intended for the most vulnerable in our society.
"Quite rightly the public get angry about such antisocial behaviour and with their support we are closing in on these thieves."
Anyone who suspects someone of benefit theft can call the National Benefit Fraud Hotline in confidence on 0800 854 440 or visit www.dwp. gov.uk/benefit-thieves
Comments
by Monsieur_Lupo
Monday, November 19 2012, 9:22AM
“What question is that 'make_redgreen'?
I can see no question from you.”
by sjn50
Sunday, November 18 2012, 11:38PM
“how can you be married and pretend to the authorities that you are single,and get away with it ?”
by make_redgreen
Sunday, November 18 2012, 4:27PM
“I think we've been issued another £125bn bill since my last comment only 2 years ago, which is how old this article is.
I would love to have the answer to my question by now, and back then I think I would have had it.
Instead, it's getting worse, a lot worse.”
by burtonftw, derby
Thursday, January 07 2010, 2:43PM
“So they have 'probably' paid a mortgage(s) off with these ill gotten gains and benefitted from the ill gotten inflation.
Make them sell the house for it's 1995 'value' and then pay the difference.
Still, I agree they are not in the same league as the politicians.
Who still aren't anywhere near the league that the bankers operate in - when will this whole pyramid scam collapse?”
by vmax-nutter, alvaston
Thursday, January 07 2010, 2:32PM
“charming aint it! Ive been redundant for 18 months now, cant get a job, my wifes on a low income, all we can get is housing benefit and council tax benefit, i cant claim jobseekers allowance because it would affect our housing/council tax benefits! Bloody stupid the way the benefit system works.”
by Rams Fan, Oakwood
Thursday, January 07 2010, 1:57PM
“Sell the house out from under them? Consider this people; who'd pay for their rent after that?!! The taxpayer!! So they get off without ANY inconvenience at all, and WE pick up their accomodation costs!!
The fairest thing would have been to impose interest and to ensure the lot was paid back in the same period as it took to claim it, 13 years. If she defaults, do not pass go, do not collect Housing Benefit, straight to jail.”
by Mel, Derby
Thursday, January 07 2010, 1:37PM
“And, because of this theft they should be banned from receiving benefits ever again, including a pension. I'm a single mother and have worked damn hard for what i have. People like them make me sick. He's as much to blame, he must have known.”
by Anon Chad, Derby
Thursday, January 07 2010, 12:57PM
“And I bet they dont even have to pay any interest of the debt............. how much would that have been on a large sum of money!!! I agree, make them sell the house like the honest hardworking people would have to do if they had debts. This would make an example and put people off benefit fraud .............. instead of giving a slap on the wrist and letting them pay it off on the never never. Shes paying £150 a month now!!! see how long that keeps up”
by Angela, Derby
Thursday, January 07 2010, 12:42PM
“Of course MPs who dishonestly claimed millions in expenses will get off scot free. It would be nice to see them hauled into court but we know that will never happen, not that I am condoning the actions of the woman concerned, merely pointing out there is one law for us and another for those who should know better and get our money to do as they want with.”
by Voice of reason, Derby
Thursday, January 07 2010, 12:40PM
“It appears they own their home. If you owed £40,000 to the building society your house would be repossessed.
Why didnt the judge give the Benefits Agency a possession order and toss these thieves out of their home?
It seems that you are better treated for stealing that you are for simply getting behind with repayments? How can that be right ?”