Fraud cash funded boy band obsession

Celebrity-mad Jayne McKnight faced the music this afternoon as her obsession with boy bands helped put her in prison for two years.

The Wolverhampton mother of four pocketed more than £112,000 in six years in illegal tax credits by claiming her 47-year-old husband David and children now aged 10 to 25, were disabled.

She claimed all of her sons and daughters had epilepsy and severe learning difficulties. In fact, just one was epileptic, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told today.

The 45-year-old, whose MySpace page was packed with photos of her posing with stars, squandered some of the cash going to pop concerts and watching her favourite groups Westlife, JLS and The Wanted perform.

She travelled around the country to meet dozens of X Factor and Britain's Got Talent stars, including 2005 winner Shayne Ward, and later admitted: "I'm happiest at a gig."

McKnight, who had a previous conviction for a benefits scam, spent hours studying the tax system so as she could steal more money, the court was told.

That helped her annual benefit from the fraud soar from £10,000 to £28,000-a-year as the lies got bigger. At one stage it was "earning" her £400 a week tax free.

She cashed in on a loophole in the benefits system to get away with the deception for six years before it was revealed by a tip off.

Her rented home in Owen Road, Pennfields, had several flat screen TVs, Xbox gaming consoles, hi fi equipment and laptops when the fraud was finally uncovered.

McKnight, who had a previous conviction for a benefits scam, made money from the state because the two Government departments involved in benefit payouts had separate computer systems and did not cross refer claims.

As a result she was able to lie to Revenue and Customs officials that her children and husband were receiving disability allowance from the Department of Works and Pensions when they were not.

This allowed her to claim ever-increasing amounts of tax credit for the non-existent disabilities. She even had some of the payouts back dated.

Prosecutor Barbara Webster told Wolverhampton Crown Court this afternoon: "She altered the claims time and again with total disregard to the truth as she became ever greedier. She was researching the system to find out what further claims she could make and then going ahead and making them."

The fraud started after a legitimate claim for £8,000 tax credit for the family but this was gradually increased by 25 separate calls to Revenue and Customs officials, each adding further elements to the payment.

First she insisted that her van driver husband was out of work although he still had his 34-hour-a-week job. Miss Webster continued: "Not content with that one lie, she made further calls to tell officials that, one by one, her children were disabled. This increased the payment."

McKnight made that move after a phone call to a benefits help line confirmed that she cold claim up to £2,155-a-year for a disabled child.

After the scam started in 2004, McKnight was overpaid by £10,000 a year in bogus tax credits.

This annual figure had risen to £23,000 by 2007 and had hit £28,000 by the time the fiddle was finally uncovered in 2010.

By then she had been overpaid £112,147.

Between 2003 and 2011 the McKnight household pocketed a staggering £250,000 when the wages of the husband were taken into account, the court heard.

It also emerged McKnight received a seven-month suspended jail sentence in June 2000 for a £15,000 family credit and housing benefit fraud committed in 2009.

Mr Robert Perry, defending, said McKnight, who admitted fraud, had a 23-year-old son with learning difficulties who suffered from epilepsy. She also had daughters aged 10 and 17 and a 25-year-old son with "drug and alcohol problems".