Woman jailed for false benefits claim

A woman who falsely claimed more than �32,000 in benefits by pretending to be a single mother when she was in fact living with her partner was on Friday jailed for six months.

A woman who falsely claimed more than �32,000 in benefits by pretending to be a single mother when she was in fact living with her partner was on Friday jailed for six months.

Maxine Carman, 45, failed to tell the Department for Work and Pensions that her husband had moved back with her and carried on claiming income support and housing and council tax benefits as if she were a single mother, Norwich Crown Court heard.

The false claim was made over a four-year period in which time she falsely claimed a total of �32,471.

Carmen, of Monks Close, Bircham Newton, admitted failing to notify a change in her circumstances from April 2003 until August 2007.

Judge Simon Barham told her she falsely claimed 'a substantial sum', adding: 'It's my duty to send you to prison.'

Jonathan Morgans, in mitigation, said it had not started out as a false claim. Though her husband was working, they were a low-income family and would have been entitled to other benefits.

'They were living on the breadline,' he said.

He added Carman was genuinely remorseful, did not want the taxpayer to have to suffer and was already paying back some of the money.