Previous criminal gets easy pickings of £28k

A woman who made false benefit claims pretended to be single and unemployed - but investigators found she had been married for 28 years and all her husband's wages went into her bank account.

Kay Hartop, from Buckworth, was handed a six-month prison sentence, and her husband Graham Hartop received a 12-month community order and was ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work.

Mrs Hartop had made claims for housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support between 2001 and 2007 totalling £28,341. On all her claims she said she was an unemployed single person living on her own.

A tip-off to the council's fraud team that other people lived at Mrs Hartop's address led to an investigation which revealed that the couple had lived together at a variety of addresses in Huntingdonshire. Mrs Hartop maintained her claims for benefit even though her husband worked full-time throughout.

Neither co-operated with inquiries by council investigators, so they were arrested and brought to court. Mrs Hartop pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to 11 counts of benefit fraud. Mr Hartop admitted he had lived with his wife throughout, but denied any knowledge of her claims for state benefits.

He was found guilty of two counts of allowing his wife to make false claims.

Judge Maloney told Mrs Hartop:

It is getting around that women can commit these offences with impunity. You are a dishonest person who saw an easy opportunity to make money and you took it.

He referred to previous convictions which she had for similar matters, telling her: "You stole a considerable amount of money from the public purse over a long period of time."

He told her she would serve a minimum of three months before being released on licence.