A woman claimed benefits for more than three years – despite having £215,000 in the bank and buying a house.
Emma Sutcliffe of Portway, Gloucestershire claimed she had no income and no savings when she made her initial Universal Credit application.
However, while she was receiving more than £15,000 in benefits she bought a house and rented it out, the court was told.
The 57-year-old pleaded guilty to dishonestly making a false statement to obtain benefits between December 2018 and August 2022.
During her sentencing, Recorder David Chidgey said he did not accept a probation report which implied that her false claim was the result of “blinkered thinking rather than a planned fraud.”
He told her: “I think it was fraudulent from the outset.
“In my judgement ‘blinkered thinking’ doesn’t cover it, given the circumstances of the case.”
Prosecutor Harry Dickens said Sutcliffe made a claim to the DWP for Universal Credit on December 10, 2018.
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But her application stated that she had no savings or income and was unable to work.
In December 2019, she reported that her circumstances had no changed.
However, Lloyds Bank supplied investigators with a Halifax statement revealing that she had £215,800 in her account and that the balance had never fallen below £52,000 while she was receiving benefits.
In February 2019, Sutcliffe was found to have bought a property for £138,000 with money from one of her bank accounts and was receiving rental payments for that property.
Emma Sutcliffe of Portway, Gloucestershire claimed she had no income and no savings when she made her initial Universal Credit application
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She was interviewed by the DWP on July 26 last year at Gloucester Job Centre Plus.
Tim Burrows, defending, said he took issue with the prosecution claim that she was fraudulent from the beginning because she was told when she first sought JobSeekers Allowance in 2015, that her capital savings would not be taken into account.
Sutcliffe was sentenced to a 12 months community order with 100 hours of unpaid work and was told that a Proceeds of Crime Confiscation hearing will take place to decide how much should be confiscated from her.
