Spared jail, benefit fraud investigator who fiddled £50,000 in tax credit con
A BENEFIT investigator whose job was to check up on claimants stole almost £50,000 in tax credits herself, a court has heard.
But a judge spared Nicola Shaw, 37, the prison sentence he said she “richly deserved” for the sake of her children.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Shaw was an administrative officer working for HM Revenue & Customs claimant compliance team benefits section.
But for six years she pretended to be a single mother after her ex-partner moved back into their Wirral, Merseyside, home and they married.
The court was told Shaw started a relationship with Richard Hamblett in 1997 and joined HMRC in 1999.
David Watson, prosecuting, said the couple bought a house in West Kirby in 2003 and had their first child a year later.
They made a legitimate joint tax credit claim in July 2004 before Mr Hamblett moved out. Shaw made a second, initially legitimate claim in December 2004 – stating she was a single mother – which ran until April 6, 2015.
Mr Watson said: “She clearly re-united with Mr Hamblett and they, in fact, married on March 4, 2006.”
Shaw, who later split from Mr Hamblett, admitted fraud on the first day of a trial on February 12. She was given seven months jail, suspended for two years, and told to do 150 hours of unpaid work.
She wept in the dock as Judge Andrew Menary, QC said she was “not a good role model for her children”.
Judge Menary said he “utterly rejected” Shaw’s excuses saying she “sought to lie her way out of it”.
But he said: “If I send you to prison today, a sentence which in many ways you richly deserve and the public would expect, there will be significant consequences for your children.”