Shropshire Star

Telford benefits cheat, 57, must repay £37,500

A Telford mother who was overpaid tens of thousands of pounds in benefits has been ordered to pay most of it back.

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Mandy Flint, 57, escaped a jail term after letting relatives live in a house being paid for by housing benefits after she had returned to live with her husband.

She was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years, ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and must attend specified activities for 10 days.

A hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act was told she must repay an agreed £37,522 to Telford & Wrekin Council and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), an increase from the £35,000 she was initially convicted of being overpaid due to inflation. The total sum overpaid was £53,683 and Shrewsbury Crown Court heard that the DWP and the council may decide to recoup a further £16,000 from her in future.

The court also heard that she had £65,000 available which is the value of her half-share of the marital home.

Flint, of Boulton Grange, Randlay, Telford, admitted 14 charges relating to fraudulently claiming housing and unemployment benefits before she was sentenced in December 2016.

At the time the court heard how she had started to claim housing benefits correctly when she and her husband were living apart in 2003. However, when she returned to the family home in May 2006 she failed to tell the authorities and continued to claim the money while allowing her son and his partner to live in the other property.

She also claimed firstly income support then employment support allowance and then job seeker allowance without making the authorities aware she had returned to live with her husband.

Then in 2010 the family went on a holiday to Orlando with the room bookings making it obvious that Mr and Mrs Flint were living as husband and wife. Prior to that in 2001 Flint took on a tenancy at a new address but never lived there.

The court heard she told the authorities that she was living there, but in fact the address remained unoccupied. She used it only to collect post and as an address for which she could claim benefit.

Judge Jim Tindal told Flint that because the home she owned with her husband is valued at £130,000 there was equity available for her to make arrangements to repay the funds that had been overpaid to her. He made compensation and confiscation orders of £18,500 to the DWP and £17,250 to Telford & Wrekin Council and he gave her three months to pay. She must also pay £1,500 in costs.

Representing herself, Flint said: “I was struggling at the time.”

But the judge told her: “I appreciate it might not be easy for you to raise £37,500, but from my point of view you are in this position because you committed fraud.”

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