Tipton mother jailed over in £54,000 benefits fiddle
A cheating mother of one, who conned almost £54,000 out of a Black Country council while the man she was secretly living with worked for the same local authority, was starting an eight-month jail sentence today.
Julie Whitehorn carried out the fraud for seven years by falsely claiming to be a single parent living with her nine-year-old daughter, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard yesterday.
As a result the 43-year-old from Central Avenue, Tipton, was able to pocket housing and council tax benefits from Sandwell Council as well as income support between January 2004 and May 2011, said prosecutor Mr Mark Jackson.
But she had been living with her partner Geoffrey Garrett since January 2004 – and he was employed by Sandwell Council as a cemetery superintendent at West Bromwich Crematorium, the court was told.
Mr Jackson said: "Throughout the fraud his wages were paid into her bank account and his employment records showed that he was resident in the same house."
Miss Alison Scott-Jones, defending, said Whitehorn had been living alone when she first claimed benefits but failed to inform the authorities of her changed circumstances after her partner moved in.
Whitehorn, who was of previous good character, pleaded guilty to three charges of benefit fraud and showed no emotion when she was jailed by Judge Michael Dudley.
He told her: "You defrauded the council of taxpayers' money and did it knowingly in a calculated and repeated way.
"People who pay their poll and council taxes are thoroughly fed up with those who do not. I presume that there were glass doors and windows that prevented one department at the council from seeing what another was doing."
