Benefit cheat avoids jail after pocketing £85,000
ABENEFIT cheat mother-of-six swindled more than £85,000 by lying about her boyfriend living with her, a court heard.
Emma Buck illegally pocketed income support, housing benefit and child tax credits for three years.
But she avoided an immediate prison sentence when a judge decided her three youngest children would “suffer greatly”.
Buck, 49, of Blackthorn Road, Bournville, claimed to investigators that her ex-partner “popped around a couple of times a week” but that they had separated and she did not know where he lived.
In reality, they were living together as a couple, he had his own key and put her address down on important paperwork.
At Birmingham Crown Court, Buck ultimately admitted two offences of dishonestly failing to notify of a change in circumstances affecting her entitlement to benefits and one offence of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent payment of tax credits. Judge Richard Bond told her she was “lucky you live in our society” but he spared her immediate imprisonment.
He sentenced her to nine months, suspended for 18 months, including 20 rehabilitation days.
Buck has claimed income support since 1992, housing benefit since 2004 and child tax credit since 2015, but she was legitimately entitled in the beginning as she was a lone parent.
Her offending took place between April 2016 and March 2019.
Prosecutor Daniel Oscroft said an investigation was launched and surveillance confirmed her partner had been living with her between December 2018 and January 2019.
He told the court further research established that they gave the same address on their son’s birth certificate, while Buck’s boyfriend also used her address on “documents for loans, multiple employment records, emergency contact details and for banking” between 2014 and 2018.
Mr Oscroft said if she had notified the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue & Customs and Birmingham City Council of the truth, as well as the fact that her partner was in full-time work, she may not have been entitled to any benefits, or at least reduced amounts.
He told the court Buck was interviewed under caution in March 2019 and said: “She denied living with him and said he popped around a couple times a week. She said they separated a couple of years earlier.
She denied knowing where he lived, denied he did the shopping or had a key. Since their son was born she said they had an on-and-off relationship but he didn’t have post sent to the address.
“He ‘visited after school and on weekends’. When shown the surveillance, she denied he lived there, saying she didn’t know he had his own key and said he hadn’t been seen leaving through the front door because he leaves from the backdoor, which isn’t locked by a key but by a bolt.”
Buck illegally claimed £6,800 of income support, £20,600 of housing benefit and £58,100 of child tax credits in the period, resulting in a total overpayment of about £85,000.
Amrisha Parathalingam, defending, did not detail any personal mitigation after Judge Bond confirmed to her he would not be sending Buck to prison, saying: “She has got a lot on her plate.”
The judge told her: “When people commit offences of benefit fraud, it’s serious. This was money you weren’t entitled to. It is really easy when you start getting benefits, and life is supported by the state, to just carry on and get used to the money when the circumstances have changed.”
He warned any further crime or breach of the suspended sentence would be reserved to himself and result in immediate imprisonment.
The judge said: “I don’t give second chances.”