Woman faces jail for £23k benefits fraud
Last updated 11:20, Wednesday, 09 April 2008
A MOTHER-OF-TWO who swindled £23,000 in benefits she wasn’t entitled to will be sentenced by a judge at Carlisle Crown Court.
Magistrates told 44-year-old Sonya Kennedy, who faces a possible jail sentence, they felt her crimes were so serious that their powers of punishment were not sufficient.
Mike Fisher, prosecuting for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), outlined how Kennedy, of Welsh Road, Carlisle, claimed Income Support for herself, her husband and their two children from August 2002.
From April of the following year, she claimed Disability Living Allowance on the basis that she was virtually unable to walk, and needed help with bodily functions.
But investigators from the DWP carried out covert surveillance
Despite her improved physical condition, and her work, Kennedy failed to tell the DWP about either change in her circumstances, and as a result over-claimed benefits worth a total of £23,071. She illegally claimed Income Support, Disability Living Allowance, Council Tax Benefit, and Housing Benefit.
Mr Fisher said: “She was asked if she had been dishonest and she agreed that she had.”
The lawyer added that in July 2006 Kennedy was given a 12-week jail term suspended for two years for stealing the wallet of a 73-year-old man as she tried to sell him a satellite TV. Inside the wallet was £790.
Geoff Clapp, for Kennedy, said: “This has been a very anxious period for her: she’s sitting there afraid of what’s going to happen.”
He said Kennedy, who admitted seven counts of benefit fraud, was guilty because she failed to notify the DWP of her change of circumstances.
She appeared genuinely remorseful. Her disability when she first claimed for it was genuine, resulting from a serious accident she had after becoming osteoarthritic. He said: “As time went on, her condition improved and she failed to discuss or declare that improvement. If you went round to her house, you’ll not find a 20 or 40-inch plasma screen TV, a Ferrari, or Bentley on the drive.
The case will go before a judge on March 14.
