Universal Credit<\/a> in 2020.<\/p>\nAccording to the Department for Work and Pensions, the mother of five spent the money on expensive clothing and holidays.<\/p>\n
She then went on to claim \u00a333,000 in benefits, even though she no longer qualified, and used this money to clear her debts and start a business, a court was told. However that business failed, and the fraudster is now \u201cin the throes of debt\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, pleaded guilty to one count of dishonestly failing to notify change of circumstances affecting entitlement to social security benefit.<\/p>\n
At Portsmouth magistrates\u2019 court, Jeffrey appeared to be carrying a designer Chloe handbag thought to be worth \u00a3650.<\/p>\n
Noel Watkins, prosecuting, said: \u201cThere is a Universal Credit payment to her for a declaration she made in 2020. But she had a significant change to her circumstances, in inheritance from her late step-mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom 2022 she received an overpayment of \u00a333,000 \u2013 it\u2019s a substantial amount to take from the public purse. All of that money has gone now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis Foster, defending, said: \u201cShe pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, and accepts responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was appointed as executor for her stepmother, and was responsible for the funeral arrangements, while also keeping employment and looking after her five children.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the money inherited was used to clear existing debts and establish a business. That business failed, and she finds herself back in the throes of debt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman claimed \u00a333,000 in benefits despite inheriting \u00a3280,000 from her stepmother. Aimee Jeffrey, 37, came into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,1115,222835,176,61,60,43,174,175,222834,1284,1173],"class_list":["post-522703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-crime","tag-department-for-work-amp-pensions","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-portsmouth","tag-standard","tag-universal-credit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}