3:30pm Wednesday 12th September 2007
By Emily Walker
A MUM-OF-THREE who cheated the benefits system out of more than £28,000 has walked free from court.
Ceri Ashbolt claimed income support, housing benefit and council tax relief for six years despite holding down a job.
But the 32-year-old's solicitor described her as being as much a victim as anyone else after telling how she buckled under the pressure and claimed the cash.
Jason Taylor, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how Ashbolt plundered £28,252.80p of state handouts between September 1999 and September 2005.
During that period she was working as a sales assistant at Mothercare World and earning about £90 a week.
He said she had completed forms saying she did not have a job and would have signed a declaration saying her circumstances had not changed when she got her money.
Ashbolt, of Cunningham Road, Pinehurst, pleaded guilty to failing to notify the authorities of a change in circumstance and two offences of making a false representation to get benefit.
She asked for a further 99 similar offences to be taken into consideration.
Rob Ross, defending, said at the time of the offences his client had been living with her two children in Pinehurst and struggling with her mortgage.
"Her parents were helping with childcare - they died," said Mr Ross. "She buckled under the pressure. She is as much a victim as anyone else. She accepts she did wrong."
He said that after looking at her case, he went to the Inland Revenue website to see what she could have got if she had claimed benefits and told the truth about her circumstances.
During the six years, he said, she would have been entitled to £23,500 in Working Family Tax Credit and an additional £19,500 to pay for childcare.
"So this lady would in effect have been better off by being honest," he said.
He added: "I hasten to say no one will agree with our figures but they were worked out by using the Government's own website."
Mr Ross said it was not the first case he had come across where a person convicted of claiming benefits they were not entitled to would have got more cash by telling the truth.
Ashbolt, he said, did not use the money for frivolities but on the basics of life in bringing up her two children.
She was now in a new relationship and had given birth to her third child about four weeks ago.
Judge Douglas Field said: "You were dishonest for a long period of time, six years, and the total amount of benefit that you wrongly obtained is no less than £28,252.80p. I have to ask myself whether custody is necessary."
He imposed a 36-week jail term suspended for a year and ordered she be placed on a supervision order for six months.
Although she has started to repay the money, he adjourned a confiscation hearing until the end of the year when the Department for Work and Pensions will try to claw back the cash.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk