A NORTH Yorkshire couple who claimed more than £25,000 in benefits they weren’t entitled to have been spared jail.

Instead, even though a judge told them they had “lived a lie, and maintained it with enthusiasm”, one was given a suspended jail sentence and the other was made subject of a community order.

Emma Louise Steele, 27, of Marlborough Avenue, Tadcaster, and Jeffrey Clark, 31, of Acaster Lane, Bishopthorpe both pleaded guilty to benefit fraud.

Steele received a six month jail sentence suspended for 12 months and was ordered to carry out 80 hours unpaid work and to pay £18,139.87 compensation within five years. Clark was given a 12-month community order and 60 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £500.

They carried out the offences in Buxton, York and Buckhurst Hill, Essex, over a four-year period before they were finally caught in July last year, Chelmsford Crown Court was told.

As he passed sentence Judge John Dodd QC told Steele: "To find an intelligent young woman in the dock admitting benefit fraud is surprising and disappointing. Your actions help to damage the benefit system for those in genuine need."

He told Clark: "Your offences are linked to the offending of Miss Steele. It's not suggested you directed the offending. Your offences involved your presence throughout this period." 

Clark admitted two offences of producing false documents in September and October 2013 and Steele admitted 14 of making false representations and producing false documents in relation to addresses at Manchester Road, Buxton, Moor Grove, York and Alfred Road, Buckhurst Hill, Essex.

She failed to own up to the fact she was living with Clark who provided documentation showing she was the tenant and he was the landlord at the Buckhurst Hill address. She also failed to declare a bank account held jointly with him.

Detailing the amounts they received, prosecutor Ian Thomas said that £5,774.76 was in income support paid by the Department of Work and Pensions. And they received council tax and housing benefit – £4,539.50 from High Peak District Council, £7,083 from City of York Council and £7,938.66 from Epping Forest Council.

He said: "Clark genuinely signed a joint tenancy with a landlord and with each council submitted a false tenancy agreement indicating she was the sole tenant. 

"Her benefit claim to High Peak said she didn't have a partner and no joint tenancy and no one else was living with her, apart from her son. In fact, Clark was living with her." 

However, Mr  Thomas said: "There was no high-rolling lifestyle with money lavished on holidays and cars.”
The couple were finally caught as a result of an investigation by Epping Forest Council.

Emma Nash, mitigating, said: "It wasn't originally fraudulent.There wasn't a definitive time when they were a couple. It was an on-off relationship. She was embarrassed to ask him to support her, it's a complex case. She's found it hard to articulate the state of their relationship, she didn't feel it was a full-time relationship.

"They are now not in a relationship, both living at home with their parents, but still have feelings for each other. She has worked as an estate agent but is going back to university. He has worked as a photographer and is in property investment but now needs to find a job."