Woman falsely claimed £12k benefits

A woman falsely claimed more than £12,000 in benefits after failing to declare her grown-up children were living at home, a court heard.

Rajdai Khan, aged 59, failed to notify Sandwell Council that her son Rudy and daughter Nadeem were living at the family home in Pemberton Close, Smethwick, on separate occasions over a four year period.

She has now been sentenced to a 12-month supervision order and ordered to pay back the rest of the cash, as well as £475 in court costs. Khan admitted making false statements and failing to notify the authority about a change of circumstances.

She was overpaid more than £12,000 in housing benefits and council tax benefits between 2003 and 2007, West Bromwich Magistrates Court was told. She had already sold her jewellery and paid back more than half of the debt before being sentenced yesterday). Mr Jeremy Swift, prosecuting on behalf of Sandwell Council, said the defendant had failed to declare her son Rudy was living at the house between March 2003 and July 2007.

He was a Sandwell Council employee and a data matching exercise found that he had used the Pemberton Close address on job application forms and other council documents, he said.

He owned his own house elsewhere in the town but this was found to have been rented out or declared as empty during the period in question.

She also failed to declare her daughter Nadeem also lived at the house between March and September last year. The defendant had previously told the council that herself and her estranged husband were the only people living there, the court heard.

Mr Matthew Hall, defending, said there was no dishonesty involved in Khan's actions and she had previously made attempts to call the relevant department to notify them of changes.

"Her son's lifestyle is perhaps a little nomadic, living with her on and off," he said.

"The prosecution accepts that this wasn't dishonesty. She has made whatever efforts she can to make the payments and the amount has been halved because she has sold her jewellery.

"The remorse she has is very clear. She is 59 years of age with no previous convictions of any sort. She comes to court having lost her good name because of what has happened.

"She has already been severely punished by having to come to court."