Benefits cheat received more than £53k after mother’s death

COURT: Woman did not notify DWP her mum died in 2008 and kept collecting cash

A woman pretended her dead mother was still alive for almost a decade to get more than £53,000 in pension payments.

Jean Hutt failed to report Jean Baillie’s death to the benefits authorities, having been receiving the payments on behalf of her mother before her death when she was living in a care home.

When Hutt, 64, of Lawson Gardens, Kirkcaldy, appeared in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, depute fiscal Claire Bremner said that Mrs Baillie was in a care home prior to her death and a guardianship order was in place.

This placed Hutt in charge of her mother’s financial affairs.

When Mrs Baillie died in 2008, Hutt failed to notify the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

When inquiries were carried out in 2017, a visit was paid to the care home and it was discovered it had closed down.

Residents had been moved into a new home and the manager there said Mrs Baillie had been resident at one time but had passed away years before.

In December 2017, Hutt attended an interview at Kirkcaldy Job Centre at which she spoke about “feeling awkward” when bank tellers asked how her mum was keeping. She also admitted a lot of money had been spent on alcohol as she had a drink problem.

“She said she had become a Christian, was ashamed of what she had done and was glad everything was now out in the open,” added the depute.

Hutt admitted that between April 12 2008 and October 18 2017 at addresses in Dunfermline, Ballingry, Kirkcaldy, Cardenden, Dysart and Methil, being the recipient of state pension, she failed to give prompt notification to the Department for Work and Pensions of the death of Jean Baillie on April 12 2008 and received £53,068.16, to which she was not entitled.

Sheriff Alastair Brown said Hutt’s record of previous convictions was “a bit surprising”.

He said: “The death of your mother is not the sort of thing you were likely to overlook.”

He called for reports and sentence was deferred until February 11.