{"id":560028,"date":"2026-07-21T02:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/560028\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T02:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:50:16","slug":"derby-benefits-cheat-claimed-40000-from-public-purse-by-not-declaring-her-inheritance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/560028\/","title":{"rendered":"Derby benefits cheat claimed \u00a340,000 from public purse by not declaring her inheritance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 46-year-old Chellaston mum has been spared immediate prison<\/p>\n

15:01, 20 Jul 2026Updated 15:36, 20 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

The case was heard at Derby Crown Court(Image: Derby Telegraph)<\/p>\n

A benefits cheat from Derby<\/a> claimed more than \u00a340,000 of public money despite coming into cash from an inheritance.<\/p>\n

Derby Crown Court<\/a> was told how Jeanette Griffin, of Chellaston, should have notified the Department of Work and Pensions about her windfall but failed to for a number of years.<\/p>\n

However, when the 46-year-old<\/a> was presented with the evidence she immediately held her hand up.<\/p>\n

And a recent change in the law means she has avoided an immediate prison term for her criminality.<\/p>\n

Handing her an eight-month prison term, suspended for a year, Judge Shaun Smith KC said:<\/a> \u201cThis was a fraud of the public purse, you carried on with it for a long period of time and it was a large sum of money.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you did not set out to defraud the public from the outset.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened was you just did not tell the DWP when your situation changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou thought you could get away with it but you didn\u2019t but in fairness to you when you knew the game was up you simply said \u2018the game is up\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the law now is that any sentence of 12 months or less is to be suspended unless there are exceptional circumstances and in this case there are no exceptional circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you will be back here for a further hearing later this year to see if there is any money to be had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarkson Baptiste, prosecuting, said Griffin began claiming benefits in 2005 and continued until the 2020s.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWhen she first claimed she said she was a single parent and agreed to notify the DWP if there was ever any change of circumstance in relation to her claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvidence came to light that she had failed to notify when she had money in four different bank accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was money that was from an inheritance from her grandmother.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overpayment from Income Support was \u00a35,265.27 between July 28, 2017 and August 7, 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Housing Benefit overpayment was \u00a331,689.39 between July 31, 2017, and January 15, 2024, and the Council Tax Support overpayment was \u00a33,643.47 between July 31, 2017, and January 15, 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe total therefore was \u00a340,598.13.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe did admit her wrongdoing when a benefit\u2019s officer presented her with the evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin, of St Peter\u2019s Road, pleaded guilty to failing to notify the authorities about a change of circumstance in relation to benefits claims.<\/p>\n

She has no previous convictions.<\/p>\n

When Judge Smith told him he was not going to send his client immediately to prison, defence barrister Philip Bown said he had nothing to add in mitigation.<\/p>\n

As part of the suspended sentence order, the judge ordered the defendant to attend 15 rehabilitation sessions with the probation service.<\/p>\n

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, which could involve Griffin being stripped of any cash or assets she might have, is scheduled to take place in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 46-year-old Chellaston mum has been spared immediate prison 15:01, 20 Jul 2026Updated 15:36, 20 Jul 2026 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,236717,54,1115,176,61,60,174,175],"class_list":["post-560028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-chellaston","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560028","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=560028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}