Benefits cheats ordered to pay back every penny

Both offenders were sentenced by magistrates following a crackdown by Cheshire East Council and will now have to repay the illegally-obtained benefits in full.

Joanne Phillips, 49, of Fanshawe Walk, Crewe, admitted fraudulently obtaining £20,823 in housing benefit, council tax benefit and council tax support.

Phillips claimed she was a lone parent on a low income.

However, Cheshire East Council’s benefit fraud investigation team discovered she had continued to claim benefits as a lone parent for more than seven years after her daughter had moved.

Phillips was sentenced to a 12-month community order with a two-month curfew imposed from 7.00pm to 7.00am.

Magistrates also ordered her to pay £575 court costs and a victim surcharge of £60.

In a separate case, Tracy Wrench, of Blagg Avenue, Nantwich, admitted fraudulently obtaining £7,067 in housing benefit, council tax benefit and council tax support by failing to declare she had savings totalling £16,000.

Wrench, 42, was sentenced to a 12-month community order with a requirement to do 130 hours’ unpaid work.

She was also ordered to pay £395 court costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

Steph Cordon, head of communities at Cheshire East Council, said: “Benefit fraud will simply not be tolerated by this authority.

“Cheshire East is an enforcing Council and our investigations team works hard to track down offenders to protect our communities from those who abuse the rules at the expense of taxpayers.”

The prosecutions were brought by Cheshire East Council’s legal team and heard at South and East Cheshire Magistrates’ Court, sitting at Crewe on May 11.

If you think someone is committing benefit fraud, you can ring the confidential freephone fraud hotline on 0800 389 2787.

You don’t have to give your name and your call will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Alternatively, you can report suspected fraud via the council’s website at cheshireeast.gov.uk