£26k tax credits cheat blew £15k on new bathroom
But has yet to pay ‘even a penny’ back
A BENEFITS cheat who owes £26,500 in tax credits splashed out thousands on a new bathroom while waiting to be sentenced, a court heard yesterday.
Nadia Begley, 43, infuriated an ‘appalled’ sheriff by admitting she had borrowed £15,000 for renovations.
The court also heard she had failed to repay ‘one penny’ of the money she had agreed to return since admitting fraud.
Begley, who lives in a £220,000 home in Livingston, West Lothian, was caught out around 18 months ago.
She previously pleaded guilty at Livingston Sheriff Court to fraudulently claiming £26,500 in child tax credits between April 2012 and September 2017.
She had originally been accused of obtaining more than £56,000 in tax credits and jobseekers’ allowance by claiming she was a single parent when she was living with her working husband, Mark.
She agreed to repay the money but has so far failed to do so. It will take her 15 years to pay off the amount, handing over up to £200 a month.
At a confiscation hearing yesterday, Begley’s lawyer Craig Scott asked for more time to answer the prosecution’s demand for a proceeds of crime payment. But Sheriff Martin Edington highlighted that Begley had failed to repay ‘even one penny’ while sitting in a house she owned.
He said: ‘It’s also apparent she thought it appropriate to borrow a further £15,000 so she could have a new bathroom.
‘I think sympathy just about hit rock bottom while you were standing there saying to me, “These are her proposals for repayment”.’
Sheriff Edington added: ‘This is just more talk, because the first diet in this case was in December 2019, so presumably the matter was running for a considerable period of time before then – many months is the likely suggestion.
‘Even if we say for the sake of argument that it had been running from say July 2019, that’s 18 months, how much has been repaid during that time? There’s been no single voluntary step to repay even one penny.
‘I can’t imagine any sheriff is going to want to impose a sentence of imprisonment without knowing what is happening about repayment.’
Turning to Begley, the sheriff said: ‘You are very properly and very correctly masked today.
‘Notwithstanding that I’ve seen you wiping your eyes on several occasions. I assume that’s been because you’ve been crying during this period today.
‘So you should, because for a period of 18 months you have not only taken no steps to repay this money, but you’ve also seen fit to borrow further money to provide your family with a new bathroom.
‘I’m frankly appalled at such a lack of co-operation on your behalf.
‘I’m going to order full answers to be lodged within two weeks of today’s date and I’m going to continue this confiscation hearing for four weeks until February 18.
‘It would go some way in your favour if you were to find the wherewithal to at the very least make one of these voluntary payments of £500 before then.
‘The court is looking at this matter extremely seriously and you are certainly looking at a custodial sentence. Get your socks up.’
Begley drove away from court in a 2019 plate car.
‘Appalled at lack of co-operation’