Jail for £80k benefits cheat who f lew to Tenerife to dodge justice
‘Treated for depression’
A BENEFITS cheat was jailed yesterday for flying off on holiday instead of doing community service.
Nicola Alcock, who stole £81,000 of public money, was arrested when she returned from Tenerife.
The holiday was a breach of a suspended jail term the 41-year-old was handed for falsely claiming child tax credits and housing benefit.
She had passed herself off as a single mother of two but in fact lived with her husband at the family home.
Officials caught her out because she set up a dog-sitting service and began gushing on the company website about her happy family life with husband Gerard Thornton. The Department for Work and Pensions launched an investigation and discovered Alcock had married Mr Thornton, a 52-year-old trucker, in 2008.
Even when confronted she denied they were together and confessed only when she was shown a copy of her marriage certificate.
Alcock admitted benefit fraud between December 2008 and April 2015. Calculations revealed she had wrongly claimed more than £58,700 in tax credits and almost £23,000 in housing benefit.
Julian Goode, prosecuting, said Alcock initially made a legitimate claim for tax credits in January 2006 on the basis she was single with dependent children.
She also made an application for housing benefit, in October 2008.
But Mr Goode added: ‘Matters altered on December 13, 2008, when she married Gerard Thornton and thereafter maintained a common household with him.
‘ The change in circum- stances would have affected her entitlement to benefits and she failed to notify the authorities.’ DWP investigators uncovered various documents confirming Alcock and Mr Thornton were living together, including a Nationwide Building Society personal loan, a hire purchase agreement, Yorkshire Bank documentation and letters from Auto Direct and Hastings insurance firms.
Mr Goode added: ‘She initially said the relationship started in 2009. Of course, we know the marriage was in 2008. She said Mr Thornton only stayed over if her daughter was at her father’s house.
‘She was later shown her marriage certificate and accepted she had been dishonest.’
For the fraud offence Alcock had been given an eightmonth suspended prison sentence with an order to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
She was jailed for four months yesterday for breaching the terms of that sentence. Richard Dawson, defending, said Alcock, of Earby near Burnley, had led an honest life, but was out of work and being treated for depression.
Alcock claimed she had gone to Tenerife to try to raise money to pay back some of the cash she had stolen.
It is not known whether she has done any of the community work.
On the Barking Mad website that led to the exposure of her fraud, she described herself as mad about animals
‘I am proud to be the Barking Mad representative in Keighley and surrounding areas. I live in Earby with my husband Gez and 2 children,’ she wrote.
‘We have a long haired Jack Russell called Penny, even though she is only a small dog she has a massive personality and is an integral part of our family, along with 4 cats, a fish and a pony called Custard.’