A PREGNANT Midland mother who was branded “thoroughly dishonest” and a “liar,” has avoided a prison sentence after she fiddled nearly £80,000 in benefits.
Nicole Perry, who has four children, was told by Judge Advocate Michael Elsom: “You have no right to hold your head up in society at all.”
He told the 35-year-old: “Hard-working people pay their taxes to support those who are genuinely in need. You were not and you chose to continue with your lies.”
The judge said the benefit fraudster lied to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) when she said she was living alone and she lied when she told them where she lived. He said the baby she was expecting would have to go through life knowing that he or she had been born in prison.
The judge, at Wolverhampton Crown Court, said Perry was now facing proceedings to reclaim her assets, and concluded: “If you find you will have to lose your home you have only yourself to blame.”
Perry, of Parkes Hall Road, Dudley, admitted failing to disclose a change in her circumstances to the DWP and was given a 12-month jail term suspended for a year.
She was further placed under supervision for a year by the Judge who told her, “You are a thoroughly dishonest woman and you are a liar.”
Prosecutor Andrew Wallace said Perry told the DWP she was a single mother living alone when, over a period between December 2001 and October 2008, she had shared her home with partner David Greenaway.
He said she also maintained she was a tenant in her home when she was the joint owner of the property and claimed her landlord was Dawn Jones – her mother.
Perry falsely picked up a total of £44,224 in Housing and Council tax benefits and a further £35,228 in income support before she was rumbled.
Joseph Lewis, defending, said that when she initially made the claims Perry thought her relationship with Mr Greenaway was over. “It got back on track and she failed to inform the authorities,” he added.
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