Teaching assistant appeals against jail for benefit fraud

A teaching assistant who cheated the taxpayer out of £29,709 over three years has been jailed for four months.

Clare Dominguez-Dona, 37, who worked at Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Leigh, pocketed the cash in housing and council tax benefit after lying about being a single parent who rented her home.

Her fraud was uncovered when investigators from Southend Council discovered she was married and owned her house in Westcliff.

She was jailed after pleading guilty to two counts of dishonesty at Southend Magistrates’ Court and will have to repay the cash at a rate of £100 a month.

Land registry records showed Dominguez-Dona and her husband had bought their home in October 2004 for £230,000. But the mum-of-four continued to claim housing benefit to supplement her “rent” until December 2007, when she landed the teaching assistant job. She also claimed she received income support.

After council officers uncovered the fraud in June last year, she also admitted making a false statement on a housing benefit form in 2006.

Magistrates told her she had committed a serious offence over a long period of time and aggravated matters by making the false statement.

Dominguez-Dona has appealed against her sentence and is due to reappear in Basildon Crown Court on February 3.