Benefits cheat received £47,000 after getting married in secret
A woman scrounged £47,000 in welfare handouts by hiding her same-sex marriage for more than five years.
Julie Hooper, 57, had married and moved in with partner Patricia Harrison but failed to disclose the relationship to the authorities.
She claimed they hid the marriage because of her disapproving mother-in-law and ‘buried her head in the sand.’
Hooper pocketed extra Employment Support Allowance and Housing Benefit without telling officials from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that Ms Harrison had a job and could help pay the bills.
She was charged after investigators checked her background and noticed Ms Harrison’s name on the TV licence and bank statements.
The benefit money was even being deposited into Ms Harrison’s bank account.
Hooper was spared jail and is currently repaying back the stolen money at £130 a month – meaning the debt will not be repaid until 2049.
Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard that Hooper, from Dunkinfield, Tameside, began to date Ms Harrison in 2011 and they are believed to have got married two years later.
Hooper had been entitled to benefits while she was single but they should have stopped when she started to live with employed Ms Harrison.
Between 2011 and 2018, Hooper received 12 letters from the DWP and she failed to inform them of a change in her circumstances.
In total she received £31,352 in Employment Support Allowance and £15,982 in housing benefit that she was not entitled to.
Prosecutor Gemma Maxwell said: ‘She failed to disclose about getting married and that she was living with her partner Ms Harrison.
‘She failed to disclose her partner was in employment to.
‘She was interviewed in relation to these matters on October 10th, 2018.
‘She did answer all questions but she did try to deny that her wife was living with her, initially.
‘She said they had been in a relationship since 2011.
‘She was then presented with various pieces of evidence to suggest Patricia Harrison was living with her such as a document with her name on the TV licence and the change of her home address with the bank.
‘All the benefits were being paid into Patricia Harrison’s account.
‘She did make full admissions and at her first court appearance entered a guilty plea.’
Hooper wept in court as she admitted fraud by false representation between February 2013 and September 2018.
In mitigation, her lawyer Ian Ridgway said Hooper suffered from many medical problems, including arthritis, heart disease, a frozen shoulder, fibromyalgia and Lupus, for which she is on morphine.
He added: ‘This scheme was doomed to fail from the start with the bank account being in her partner’s name.
‘She expresses remorse and it’s noted by a probation report author that this remorse is genuine.
‘She tells me that her partner moved in with her but her partner found it difficult talking to her mother about the relationship.
‘Perhaps with the older generation there is more of a social stigma to it – and with that lack of disclosure, this situation developed, and she buried her head in the sand.’
Judge Kate Cornell ordered Hooper to complete 30 days of rehabilitation activity requirements and she must be electronically tagged for three months.
She added: ‘I understand you have poor understanding of how best to manage your money and your life. But that does not excuse fraud of the public purse.’