Mother hit with identity theft struggled to feed her family

A Dundee mother-of four has said she struggled to put food on the table for her family after conman Rory McWhirter stole her identity.

The failed businessman used the names of Sam and Scott Bruce four times to register four fake baby girls.

McWhirter, who even registered one fake birth in Sam’s name eight days after she gave birth to her daughter Rosie in 2015, was jailed for 28 months at Dundee Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

Furious Sam said her tax credits and child benefit were stopped for two weeks as a result of the confusion caused by McWhirter’s scam.

She said 28 months in prison is not enough for the emotional distress he caused.

Sam said: “It was a huge violation of privacy.

“At least he did get a sentence and it was recognised what he did was wrong.

“The whole thing has been a total shambles.

“After my son Matthew was born I had got it into my head – I don’t know why – that you couldn’t claim child benefit for four children but you could get tax credits.

“The HMRC investigated this and when they saw these other claims they just stopped our child benefit and tax credits, which we relied on.

“We’ve got four children and although my husband works we do need the tax credits to get from week to week.”

Sam added: “We were left with no money for a fortnight and we worried about how we would put food on the table.”

Sam and Scott had also been trying to save money to go on holiday with their children Josh, seven, Mason, four, Rose, 19 months and Matthew, seven months, during the time of the interruption of their benefits.

They were not the only couple whose names were stolen by McWhirter.

He also stole the identities of Broughty Ferry couple Lesley and Ewan Philp after Lesley gave birth to twins Rachel and Douglas in 2015.

Forty-eight hours after their birth, McWhirter registered two sets of identical twins.

Both Sam and Lesley had given birth at Ninewells Hospital.