Cheating mother cheats again

Lisa Watson (background here) - who claimed she had eleven children in her 20's without raising suspicions on the way - has been back in court.

She has now admitted forging a bank statement to pretend she was paying back the cash.

She is already awaiting sentence for inventing children to fraudulently scam the benefit agencies. She had been given a chance to pay back the cash, but last month a sheriff ordered a police investigation into the repayments.

His suspicion came about when Watson's then solicitor, Diane MacFarlane, withdrew from representing her over the authenticity of information provided by her client.

The 28-year-old has now pleaded guilty to a new offence of attempting to pervert justice by uttering as genuine to her lawyer a forged bank statement.

It falsely showed payments she had made between May 9, 2010, and August 9, 2010. She admitted this was done with the intention of misleading the court into accepting she had repaid more than she actually had.

Watson was only 24 when she invented names and birthdays for 11 fake children, ranging from one year old to 13 - including some said to be born just days apart. (Was anyone awake at the DWP HMRC?) Sheriff David Sutherland has previously warned her that she faced jail if the cash was not repaid.

The case has been put off on numerous occasions to allow Watson to prove she is repaying the cash on a regular basis. It was on this issue that her latest lawyer Diane McFarlane withdrew from representing her.

Watson had told HM Revenue and Customs she had 11 children aged from one to 13 in a bid to fraudulently earn £16,787. Watson carried out the benefits scam while she had only one child.

The court heard she did not claim benefits for her real offspring.

On a previous appearance, Sheriff Sutherland told Watson: "I must say this is one of the worst frauds I have come across in the benefit system.

"It is appalling how one can claim to have this number of children when they don't. It was something you did knowingly. I intend to have this money repaid in full. If the repayments are not maintained then it will be inevitable that a lengthy custodial sentence will be imposed."

Since the offences came to light four years ago she has made irregular payments to HMRC, but the sheriff wants monthly payments to ensure the whole amount is repaid.

Sheriff Sutherland deferred sentence until March 31 for background reports and released Watson, now a mum of two, on bail.