£63K benefit cheat granny Thelma Grey to pay back just £10,000
By The Citizen | Friday, December 14, 2012, 06:00
BENEFIT cheat granny Thelma Grey will have to pay back just £10,000 of the money she took from the state.
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Thelma Grey
The 70-year-old, who cheated more than £63,000, was ordered in April 2011 to pay back £20,000 from her assets.
But this week she won a 50 percent reduction in the amount she has to pay back under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Judge William Hart, sitting at Gloucester Crown Court, was told that Grey's house had sold for £10,000 less than predicted.
He made a new order requiring her to forfeit only £10,071.74 instead of the original sum ordered last year of £20,193.
Grey, formerly of Merlin Drive, Quedgeley, Gloucester, but now living at Nodes Point Caravan Park on the Isle of Wight, was jailed for eight months for her offences. She served only two months before getting parole.
When she was sentenced, the court was told she had systematically cheated the state by pretending she was unmarried when she was living with her husband Dennis Dutton.
The grandmother, who has diabetes, lied for nine years to get income support and benefits she was not entitled to from the Department of Work and Pensions and her local council, the court was told.
Comments
Don't the people who process these benefit claims carry out any checks? Is it really that easy to defraud the taxpayer?
By Coingrass at 21:37 on 14/12/12
ReportYup, crime does pay. Why didn't the son have to repay any of the money he defrauded the taxpayer of? Presumably he can earn money to pay off the debt?
By Raccoon at 17:34 on 14/12/12
ReportLet me get this right, her house sold for £10k less than expected so the judge let her off £10k repayments. SO the tax payer hads just made up for the shortfall in the sale of her house!! Un believable.
By valhalla2010 at 11:17 on 14/12/12
ReportAnd don't forget her son Andrew Stewart who is also a convicted benefit cheat. He DIDN'T go to jail and DIDN'T have to repay any of the £33,33357 he stole.
2ladybugs is quite right - Crime does pay.
By raidermanuk at 10:29 on 14/12/12
ReportCrime pays a lot more if you are an MP!!
She actually went to prison for this. Some MP's get cabinet posts as a reward for the same crime!
By Ipaytax at 10:16 on 14/12/12
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