Wolverhampton benefits cheat mum avoids jail 'by a cat’s whisker’
A cheating Wolverhampton mother of two has escaped being locked up by a ‘cat’s whisker’ after illegally pocketing more than £30,000 worth of benefits.
RAC call centre worker Katie Daffon drew tax credit, housing benefit and income support on the basis that she was single when she was really living with her partner.
The racket, which was fraudulent from the outset, lasted for almost three years before being uncovered by the Department of Work and Pensions, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Daffon, 29, whose children are aged three and one, was paid a total of £30,459 to which she was not entitled, said Miss Naomi Nelson-Cofie, prosecuting.
The defendant’s volatile relationship with her partner had been ‘on and off’, it was claimed, but investigators discovered he gave her address on bank accounts, paid the rent and settled utility bills. He also registered their first child and organised child maintenance.
The couple were kept under surveillance for seven days during which he was seen coming and going from the property at times that matched his work schedule, said said Miss Nelson-Cofie.
Daffon, of Steven Drive, Bilston, told a pack of lies when first quizzed about her dishonesty and even denied that her partner was the father of her second child.
But she later admitted three charges of fraud committed between January 2014 and April 2017 and has already repaid £1,600 of the money she was wrongly paid, said Miss Kamalpreet Shergill, defending.
Recorder Abigail Nixon told Daffon: “You have come within a cat’s whisker of immediate custody. You deliberately deceived the DWP. You lied and lied, even to the extent of denying your partner fathered your second child. That was disgraceful.
“These are serious offences but you have already started to pay back the money and your two children would suffer if their mum was sent to prison.”
Daffon was given 10 months jail suspended for a year and ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work.
