A mother of three from Carlisle illegally accepted more than £12,000 in benefits while she was working as a cleaner – at the office which was processing her claim.
Leanne Gwatkin, 33, failed to tell officials at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that she had a wage earning partner living with her.
Nor did she declare that she was working as a cleaner for a company which sent her to work at the DWP’s main office in Carlisle city centre.
All claimants have a legal duty to declare any change in their circumstances which might affect their claim.
Kim Whittlestone, prosecuting for the DWP, said Gwatkin, who admitted benefit fraud at an earlier hearing, was cleaning at the benefits office for seven or eight months, from April to December last year.
At the time, she was claiming Income Support, Housing Tax Benefit and Council Tax Benefit, but she denied her partner was living with her at the relevant time.
Miss Whittlestone said that DWP investigators carried out observations of her home for two months, proving her partner was regularly living there and they were maintaining a common household.
The total amount of benefits overpaid was £12,635.
Farrhat Arshad, for Gwatkin, said her client was a woman of previous good character who had taken the view that she could not rely on her partner to bring in a regular wage to the house.
She continued to be in financial difficulty, but was now so terrified of committing further offences without meaning to that she often did not claim all the money to which she was entitled, said the barrister.
She said Gwatkin, who suffered from depression, felt remorse, and added: “She doesn’t want to rely on the benefits system any more.”
Judge Paul Batty QC imposed a nine month jail term but suspended it for two years and ordered that Gwatkin should do 120 hours of unpaid work.
htp Dave
0 comments:
Post a Comment