A woman who claimed to be a mum of ELEVEN kids to scam benefits has been spared jail after a judge took pity on her.
The court heard Rebecca Jones did not use the scam to live a lavish lifestyle – but to move from house to house as she fled an abusive relationship.
The 32-year-old appeared in the dock heavily pregnant with her third child, the Manchester Evening News reported.
Jones, of Wythenshawe, was already making a legitimate benefit claim for two children when she began making kids up. The first child, added on December 2012, she named ‘Kai Beckford’.
Four months later ‘Kai’ was followed by ‘Kate Jemma Jones’, and eight days after that, ‘Kyle Jones’. In June 2013 twins ‘Holly Jane Jones’ and ‘Mia Jane Jones’ were added to the fictional brood. And in August 2013 there followed another set of twins, ‘Denai Leigh Jones’ and ‘Dean Paul Jones’.
That fraud netted nearly £6,000. But on top of that, she added four more names to her niece’s claim, and then linked those benefits to her account, netting over £3,000 in the process.
In total she defrauded £9,952 in over payments between December 2012 and September 2013.
Jones, 32, pleaded guilty to knowingly being concerned in the fraudulent payment of tax credits, and has now paid a third of it back by way of £30 instalments.
At a previous hearing she was accused of having made up 13 children – but by the time the case got to Manchester Crown Court for sentencing, she only faced punishment for eleven.
Defence lawyer Paul Bryning said the offending happened against a backdrop of ‘domestic’ issues, adding: “She had no luxuries, she had no quality of life, and this money was used to fund numerous moves to evade this abusive partner.
“She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she describes that as being a secondary consideration, given the situation she was in.”
Sentencing her to a four-month sentence, suspended for a year with supervision and a requirement to attend a problem solving course, Judge Richard Mansell QC told her: “You have been through quite a lot of upset. None of that detracts from the fact you deliberately set out to gain more benefits that were not entitled to.
“You would only serve a very short period in prison, although it might send out message to others who might be minded to defraud the system, it would do little for you. What have saved you is the difficult few years you have had.”
COURTESY MIRROR
