Burntwood benefits cheat was overpaid by £56k

Mother-of-two Theresa Forbes was receiving housing benefit, council tax relief and income tax credits, Stafford Crown Court heard.

She received the money as a single parent having failed to notify the authorities that she had moved in with and subsequently married Stephen Ingley.

Forbes, 40, of Johnson Road, Burntwood, admitted four charges of making dishonest representations and one of being concerned in fraudulent activity.

She was given a four-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to do 150-hours of unpaid work.

Judge Mark Eades told her yesterday: "This is a crime which makes people angry because they see people who are undeserving digging in to the public purse.

"You are going to have to live with the fact friends and neighbours are going to point the finger at you and say there goes a benefits cheat."

Mr Richard Dewsbery, prosecuting, said Forbes' circumstances changed in early 2007 when she moved in with Mr Ingley and they married in July that year.

But her claim for benefits and tax credits remained unaltered and paid on the basis she was living alone.

She was quizzed by the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) in October 2012, when she denied being married, but after being shown her marriage certificate and bills in Mr Ingley's name, she changed her story and accepted she had been dishonest. "Essentially this is a benefit fraud spanning five and a half years," Mr Dewsbery said.

Although the total amount she was overpaid came to £56,407, the department had calculated that had she been honest, the couple would have been entitled to £24,000 in tax credits, bringing the true loss to the public purse closer to £32,000. Mr Stephen Bailey, defending, said the majority of her claims were not fraudulent from the outset. He said she was a mother-of-two who had never been in trouble before.