Shrewsbury woman in £45,000 benefits fraud is spared jail

Lisa Evans, 44, of Severn Street, claimed housing and council tax benefit, emergency support allowance and income support based on the fact she was living alone and was unable to work.

Shrewsbury Crown Court heard the failed to tell the authorities the correct date her circumstances had changed when she married and moved in her husband, Timothy Evans.

Mr Nigel Stelling, prosecuting, said the total amount overpaid between 2010 and 2013 was in the region of £43,500.

He said: "The claims were made on the basis that Miss Brown, as she was then, was unable to work and had no other means of support or income."

The prosecutor said she notified the authorities in October 2013 that she was living with Mr Evans as man and wife but investigations revealed they had been living together as far back as 2010.

"She failed to declare that change in circumstances because she was struggling financially," Mr Stelling told the court.

Mr Paul Smith, for Evans, said his client was paying the money back at a rate of around £95 per month.

"She is paying the money back but as she is not able to physically work it is impacting on her quite a bit," he said.

"She will be paying it back for the rest of her life."

Evans had admitted at a previous court hearing three charges of failing to notify the relevant authorities of a change in circumstances between July 2010 and November 2013.

She appeared at Shrewsbury yesterday to be sentenced to eight months in prison but Judge Jim Tindal opted to suspend the jail term for one year.

Judge Tindal told Evans: "You are someone who has never really been in trouble before. You claimed benefits legitimately for a period of time because of your health and your disability.

"What you did was get into a relationship with someone. You gave a notification but the notification wasn't that which it should have been.

"The consequences of that were for a considerable period of time you were in receipt of benefits at a very high level which you shouldn't have been. The net effect of that is you effectively stole £45,000 from the public purse.

"You might think taking that money is not the worst thing in the world but actually, money is tight. The more money taken, the less there is available for other people who are genuinely in need. That's the reason it is taken so seriously."