Shropshire Star

Ludlow mother dishonestly claimed £7,000 in benefits

A mother of four wrongly claimed more than £7,000 in benefits after she failed to reveal that her new partner had moved in.

Published

Maxine Jones, 35, of Ludlow, admitted three counts of dishonesty relating to her failure to declare that her household income had increased.

She was overpaid a total of £7,055 in income support and council tax benefits between January 2014 and May 2015.

Miss Abigail Hall, prosecuting, said the defendant had correctly applied for benefits in 2012 and 2013 and also received child benefits and carer allowance.

But when her partner James Finnegan moved in, she failed to notify the authorities as required on the declaration forms.

Mrs Ruth Edwards, mitigating, said the carer, of Rock Green Crescent, Rock Green, had rekindled an on-off relationship with Mr Finnegan who had emigrated to Australia with his family as a young man.

"She got married and had three children," she said. "She also has relatives in Australia and when her marriage ended she travelled there to visit her brother in 2013 where she rekindled the relationship with her new partner.

"She fell pregnant and he returned to the UK for the birth in November 2013.

"He had a return ticket for January 2014 and was staying with her and other members of his family.

"He kept extending his return date as he was finding it difficult to leave his daughter and go back to the other side of the world.

"He decided in the autumn of that year that he wasn't going back. He had not got full time work and my client found herself in the unenviable position of having four young children and an adult to provide for."

She said Mr Finnegan finally found employment with a utility firm in April 2015.

"They were in the process of sorting out the benefits when she got called in for interviews about their status in May 2015," she added. "It was a bit of a shock for her to get a summons 18 months later after her interview to attend court. I have absolutely no idea why it takes 12 to 18 months for cases like these to come to court."

She said Jones had already repaid about £2,000 and had not acted fraudulently at the outset. For the offences she was given a two-year conditional discharge at Telford Magistrates Court, ordered to pay costs £185 and victim surcharge of £25.

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