£22k benefit cheat mum made false disability claim

Published on Wednesday 15 July 2009 10:09

A 28-year-old mother of three who falsely claimed that she, her children and her partner were all severely disabled received more than £22,000 in benefits to which she was not entitled.

Anne Marie Cockburn's cheating began just two months after being released early from a ten-month sentence for a similar fraud involving 18,000.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday Cockburn, of Gorton Place, Rosewell, Midlothian, was returned to prison for the 110 days of the unexpired portion of her previous sentence and had 20 months added.

She pled guilty last month to fraudulently obtaining 22,373.74 in working tax and child tax credits between 12 December, 2006, and 20 November, 2007.

Fiscal depute Melanie Ward told the court that the offences came to light after a friend of Cockburn was advised that details relating to a nursery and work for a cleaning company had been changed on one of her bank accounts. The Criminal Investigations Unit of HM Revenue and Customs was alerted and found that the claims being made were false. Cockburn was interviewed and admitted what she had been doing.

Defending solicitor advocate, David Allan, told Sheriff Derrick McIntyre that the principal reason for the offence was drug addiction, in particular methadone and dihydrocodeine. Cockburn, he said, had become addicted to the drugs after being prescribed them following a road traffic accident.His client, he added, had made positive changes to her lifestyle.

Sheriff McIntyre told Cockburn a custodial sentence was inevitable.