A HEYSHAM mother of three who dishonestly received over £31,000 in benefits sobbed as she was sent to jail.
Carol Williams started out legitimately claiming income support.
Within weeks of her claiming countil tax and housing benefits, a legacy of over £29,000 was paid into her accounts, following the death of her mother.
She did not tell the autho
rities and carried on receiving money over a total of up to four years.
The 48 year old woman was given four months prison by a judge who told her: "The benefits system is there as a network of support. It isn't there to be cheated or plundered."
Willliams of Oxcliffe Road, Heysham had pleaded guilty to three offences of failing to notify a change in circumstances.
Mr Frank Nance, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said the defendant legitimately claimed income support from at least 1990, on the basis that she was unemployed and a single parent of three.
In about September 2003 she began to claim housing and council tax benefits from Lancaster City Council. This was around a month before a sum of over £29,000 was paid into her accounts.
Williams, a woman of previous good character, later said in interview that the money was a legacy from her late mother who had died in 2002. She said it had been intended for her sons and therefore she did not think of it as hers.
At the time, anyone who had more than £8,000 savings would not have been entitled to benefits.
The total amount of benefits in the case was £31,316.
Two thirds of the money has since been repaid and the judge directed that £10,374 compensation be paid.
Mr Fraser Livesey, defending, said the claims had initially been legitimate. The court proceedings had had a significant effect on her.
"The money was not frittered. She has not principally used the money for her own needs or on luxury, or the like."
Judge Stuart Baker said it was an unhappy occasion, when a woman who has led an otherwise blameless life, finds herself in the dock.
She had claimed the benefits over a period of three to four years.
"By most people's standards, that is a lot of money.
"From time to time, when it suited you to do so, you dipped into the capital to supplement the benefit income you had pretended you were entitled to receive."
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