Benefit fraud case study: Partner lived at home in secret

Published on 22/09/2012 12:00

IN one of the biggest recent cases of benefit fraud in the Capital, Nicola Smeaton illegally claimed more than £64,000 housing benefit when her partner was the landlord.

Following a 2009 investigation by the Department for Work and Pensions, Smeaton, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service.

She claimed £64,331 as the sole tenant of a property in Parkhead Crescent, but investigators discovered that her partner was the live-in owner of the property, 
and secretly filmed them both entering and leaving the home over a period of several weeks.