‘Ashamed and remorseful’ benefit fraudster avoids jail

A Dunfermline woman who fraudulently obtained £11,000 in benefits over a period of almost two years has avoided jail.

Instead, 55-year-old Karen Ross was placed on a community payback order with 250 hours of unpaid work.

Ross, of Wedderburn Street, admitted that between October 28 2011 and August 7 2013 she failed to give notification of a change in circumstances to the Department for Work and Pensions, in that she was living with and deriving income from David Clark, who was in paid employment, and received £5,200 in benefits to which she was not entitled.

She further admitted that between November 2 2011 and August 11 2013 she failed to give prompt notification of a change in circumstances she knew affected her entitlement to housing and council tax benefit, in that she was living with David Clark and obtained benefits of £5,800 to which she was not entitled.

At Dunfermline Sheriff Court yesterday, depute fiscal Dev Kapadia said surveillance was carried out and observed her partner’s car parked at the home of Ross and checks with banks and his employer also showed that he was living there.

Defence solicitor Stephen Morrison said it had not been his client’s intention initially to claim benefits she was not entitled to but by the end of the period in question, Mr Clark was “staying there more or less full-time”.

She was “ashamed and remorseful”, he added.

Sheriff Charles Macnair said: “I am just persuaded that is an alternative to a custodial sentence.” Imposing the community payback order, Sheriff Macnair warned Ross if she did not carry out the unpaid work she could expect a prison sentence.