Wednesbury benefits cheat in fraud of £23,773
A woman started her own business while fraudulently pocketing almost £24,000 in benefits after claiming she was unfit to work, a court heard.
Tracey Johnson had been employed as a supermarket canteen assistant before launching her cafe, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
But the 53-year-old did not tell the authorities about the change in her circumstances and collected £15,500 disability living allowance along with incapacity payments and other benefits, revealed Mr Nicholas Berry, prosecuting.
Johnson held the canteen job for around seven months between October 2008 and May of the following year before starting the cafe in October 2010 but the business only lasted until the next February, the court heard.
Mr Berry said: "The benefit claims were not fraudulent from the outset but she failed to inform the interested parties that her health had improved so much that she could be engaged in full time employment."
The defendant had developed osteoarthritis after badly trapping a disc in a fall downstairs in 1992 and this led to legitimate pay outs of disability benefits along with those covering housing and council tax costs, it was said.
Johnson from Hughes Road, Moxley, Wednesbury, admitted five fraud offences involving false benefit claims totalling £23,773 and was given a 16-week jail term suspended under supervision for a year with a three-month night time curfew. Much of the money was spent adapting her home to the demands of her injury.
