Mum’s £10,000 false benefit claims
8:42am Saturday 18th February 2012 in News
A MUM-OF-TWO illegally claimed almost £10,000 in benefits — despite having more than £35,000 saved to pay for her daughters’ lavish weddings.
Susan Morris was yesterday given an 18-week curfew by Bolton magistrates — but allowed a break from her punishment when she goes to one of the weddings in the Dominican Republic next month.
Morris, aged 48, of Yewdale Gardens, Breightmet, claimed almost £7,500 in housing benefit and more than £2,000 in council tax benefit over more than three years despite never being entitled to it.
The court heard she had three opportunities to tell the authorities she had money in four Santander bank accounts, but did not mention it until she was interviewed by an investigator.
If she had told the council she had such a large amount of money saved she would not have been entitled to receive any benefits.
Morris claimed she did not consider the money was hers because she intended to give it to her daughters to pay for their weddings.
She was only caught when she transferred £10,000 into her current account to pay for her first daughter’s wedding.
When Bolton Council sent her a letter asking how she had managed to save such a large amount, she told them she had been saving her benefit payments and gave evidence to support the claim, the court heard.
She later admitted she made the cash from the sale of a house.
A recovering alcoholic, Morris said she drank her share and put the rest away for her daughters.
Daksa Kanda, defending, said: “She told her two daughters that that money was theirs. She didn’t want to touch it because she was on the drink and it was there for their weddings. She realises now the accounts were in her name and she should have declared them.”
Morris, who pleaded guilty to three counts of making a false statement to obtain benefits, has now paid back the money she owed. She was ordered to pay £914 costs.
