A Mount Wise carpenter whose partner continued to claim £57,000 benefits after he moved in with her and her three children has walked free from Plymouth Crown Court.
Darren Lyon had pleaded guilty to allowing Michelle Joce to fail to notify the authorities that her circumstances had changed.
The prosecution claimed Lyon, a £400-a-week carpenter, must have realised by mid-2004 that Joce was claiming £1,000 a month in benefits. The debt was now being repaid at £40 a month, with £600 returned to date.
Jason Beal, for Lyon, said the children, aged 15, 13 and six, had been affected by their mother's imprisonment, though she had since been released. Lyon was the family bread-winner and its best hope of discharging some of the debt, he said. (So the relationship hadn't broken down, as Joce's defence had claimed.)
The judge said: "This type of offending is far too prevalent." He added that if Lyon was jailed, and lost his job, the disturbance to the children would be unduly harsh. He imposed a six-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered Lyon to carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work and pay £250 prosecution costs.
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