Curfew order for benefit cheat

A BENEFIT cheat who falsely claimed £16, 693 from the council and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been given a curfew order and ordered to pay back the overpayment.

Jane Boden, 23, of Grafton St, Warrington, pleaded guilty to benefit fraud at Warrington Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 1 October.

Boden was claiming benefits as a single person when she was in fact living with her partner.

Between March 2005 and January 2007 she defrauded the council of £3, 424 housing benefit and £547 council tax benefit and the DWP of £12, 722 income support.

She was sentenced to a three month curfew order, meaning she can not leave her home between 7pm - 7am. She also has to pay £100 legal costs as well as pay back all the benefits she received.

Adrian Webster, the Council’s Benefits Manager, said “Benefit cheats are not just defrauding the Government, but their own tax paying neighbours and communities. With the new methods of data matching we are using, the obvious message to benefit cheats is – ‘you will be caught’.”

Fraud operations manager for the DWP Roy Paul added: “The public is fed up with cheats who steal money from the taxpayer when it should go to those in genuine need of help.”
People in Warrington can give information about alleged fraudsters free and in confidence on the National Benefit Fraud Hotline on 0800 854440.

Issued by:  Joanna Driscoll, principal communications officer
Date:   Wednesday 8  October, 2008
Release: Immediate