£78,000 benefits cheat wife avoids jail

Sarah Jane Jones fraudulently claimed a range of benefits which were false from the start.

She claimed them as a single parent who was caring for her estranged husband – but they were living together as man and wife.

And at one stage her husband was earning £30,000 a year.

At Mold Crown Court, Jones, 42, of Lon Cerios, Newtown, received a 16-month prison sentence suspended for two years and was placed on rehabilitation.

The court heard that at the time she had been under pressure because of her own health problems and health issues which affected her daughter.

Judge Niclas Parry said that she had admitted a course of conduct that amounted to repeated fraud.

"If there was a benefit going then you were going to have it," he told her.

Apart from one, all the claims were fraudulent from the start and the public had been cheated out of £78,000, he said.

It had gone on for a very long time, a period of more than eight years.

There were repeated claims and only a custodial sentence could be justified.

But she had pleaded guilty, was truly remorseful, she had no previous convictions and had therefore acted out of character.

There was "no lavish lifestyle on the back of this money" and when £78,000 was spread over eight years it painted a different picture, he said.

"I accept that you acted under a period of tremendous stress with your own health problems and you child's health problems .

"In this case, any right-minded person would understand how the gravity of the offences can be marked by a suspended sentence."

He said that the experience of the prosecution had been a salutary lesson for her.

Judge Parry did not order compensation and said arrangements had been made for her to repay the monies at a significant rate.

Jones previously pleaded guilty to 12 charges involving fraud and obtaining money transfers involving income support, carer's allowance, tax credits, housing benefit and evasion of liability to pay council tax.

The offences date back between 2006 and February 2015 and involved the Department of Work and Pensions, Powys County Council and North Somerset Council.

It is alleged that she committed the offences by failing to declare that she was living in a common household with Mark Jones, who was in employment.

Prosecuting barrister Ffion Tomos said that the defendant was married but claimed a variety of benefits as a single mother who was the full time carer for her husband.

But it came to light that she was not separated from her husband, they maintained a common household and when he returned to work she continued to claim carer's allowance. He had been earning a good wage of £35,000 a year as a grounds worker.

Miss Tomos said that the total loss to the public purse was £78,246.

Interviewed, she denied the offences and said she was not living in a common household with her husband.

The claim for carer's allowance was the only benefit claim which was not fraudulent from the start.

The defendant, she said, was a woman of no previous convictions.

Defending barrister Simon Rogers said that she deserved credit for her early guilty pleas.

She was a low risk of re-conviction.

It was clearly a serious case but she had suffered considerably with ill-health and her daughter's health had been a cause of great concern to her.

He said it did not excuse what she had done but it placed the offending in some sort of context.

A suspended sentence with rehabilitation would be the best way of dealing with the case not just for her but for society at large, said Mr Rogers.