York benefits cheat is cleaned out (From York Press)

York benefits cheat is cleaned out

3:00pm Wednesday 28th January 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

A BENEFIT fraudster escaped a jail term when she was caught defrauding the taxpayer for the second time.

Barbara Foster, 51, illegally claimed benefits totalling £8,368 on the grounds that she was too ill to work, her husband, Peter, did not work and they had no income, said Tina Wharton, prosecuting for the Department of Work and Pensions at York Magistrates Court.

In reality both were working as cleaners at the same company.

The wife had three previous convictions for benefit fraud, in October 2002.

Mark Thompson, for Foster, said the couple were saving up to pay the £300 fee to have themselves declared bankrupt because they had debts of £30,000 to £40,000 they could not repay, and they had since given up work because their hours and duties were “far more than they had expected”. They now existed on the husband’s Pension Credit.

Foster, of Pottery Lane, York, pleaded guilty to six charges of benefit fraud, committed between January and December 2005 and was given a community order with 12 months’ supervision and 50 hours’ unpaid work, and was ordered to pay £75 prosecution costs.

Miss Wharton said Foster earned up to £553 a fortnight and her husband up to £901 a fortnight, while they were claiming benefits. She cheated her way to £3,545 in incapacity benefit, £1,767 in income support, £2,402 in housing benefit and £653 in council tax benefit.

Mr Thompson said the couple did not have an extravagant lifestyle.

The wife had worked 15 hours a week at railway company offices and was given supervisor status. The husband agreed to become a janitor on a short-term basis after starting as a cleaner. Both had since left their jobs.

They did notreport their work to the benefit authorities because of domestic problems.

She had health problems, including depression, had recently had an operation and “spent a fortune” travelling around the country to make weekly prison visits to a close relative behind bars.

The court heard they had wanted to be declared bankrupt, but could not afford the fee to start the process so they got work to raise money.

They had now taken steps to sort out their finances.