Benefit cheat fined over false claims

A WOMAN has been fined after she kept claiming Income Support even though she’d started a new job.

Benefits cheat Karen Lawrie failed to tell the Department of Work and Pensions she was earning again.

The 29-year-old banked more than £600 before her dishonesty was exposed, Livingston Sheriff Court was told.

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Lawrie, from Whitburn, West Lothian, appeared for sentence yesterday Tuesday.

She earlier pleaded guilty to obtaining £643 to which she wasn’t entitled between June and August 2009.

Claire Taylor, defending, said Lawrie had repaid some of the cash and set up a direct debit to pay the £294 still outstanding.

Sheriff Martin Edington told Lawrie he was impressed that she’d done what she promised and started repaying the money.

Fining her £200, he said: “This kind of offending is always a serious matter.”

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