£23k benefits mother lied over her marriage

A mother-of-three was overpaid more than £23,000 in benefits after she failed to reveal she had got married, a court heard.

Wolverhampton Crown court was yesterday told Joanne Reeves, from Darlaston, lied to benefits staff.

The deception continued until they confronted her with a copy of her marriage certificate and other documents showing she was no longer a single mother. Reeves, of Lowe Avenue, Rough Hay, admitted four counts of failing to notify of a change in circumstances at a previous hearing.

Miss Sarah Fahy, prosecuting said Ree-ves, formerly Joanne Partridge, had correctly claimed Income Support from the Department for Work and Pensions, and council tax and housing benefits from Walsall Council when she was single in 2003.

But she failed to inform the authorities when her circumstances changed. She said the 28-year-old had had been overpaid by a total of £23,395 between November 2005 and September last year.

She said: "Claiming as a single parent in 2003 she said she had children by Mr Reeves. Essentially after the birth of each child she claimed that he didn't want to know.

She said he contributed to some bills, sometimes used her address for his post, but she didn't know where he lived." She said the couple got married on September 7, 2009, and the Crown accepted her actions had not been fraudulent at the outset.

Mr Rob Perry, defending, told the court his client had repaid £5,000 of the money from her husband's bank account. He added the children were aged 10, seven and three-years-old.

Judge Amjad Nawaz jailed Reeves for four months suspended for 18 months, and ordered her to carry out 100 hours unpaid work in the community.