Jailed: Walsall mother who claimed £40k in benefits fraud

A mother of six who told a pack of lies to pocket almost £40,000 in benefits has been jailed for eight months.

Billie-Jo Doherty put her tanning business into the name of another person while still collecting £1,350 a month from it.

This was so the payments could be kept secret while she illegally claimed council tax, housing benefit and income support, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The 38-year-old also did not reveal bank accounts holding up to £30,000 worth of savings during the near four-year-long fraud – and kept secret the fact she had bought a £350,000 house in Coronation Road, Walsall, with her husband nine years before the racket started.

The property was later sold at a £250,000 loss, the court heard.

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Doherty repeatedly lied when filling in benefit application forms for Walsall Council and the Department of Work and Pensions. "The claims were fraudulent from the outset," revealed Mr Duncan Craig, prosecuting.

Mr Malcolm Morse, defending, said: "She is the mother of six children and has had a very unfortunate marriage which has been affected by violence.

"The money was not spent on luxuries. The house was sold at a substantial loss during the collapse of the housing market and she has recently been living in a caravan."

Mr Morse claimed the defendant did not reveal details about her savings because she felt they should be used for the benefit of her children but he added: "I accept that this was a deliberate and premeditated action of non-declaration but she has done her best to put it right since. She feels genuine remorse and has started to pay back the money."

Doherty, from Willenhall Lane, Walsall, who was of previous good character, pleaded guilty to the fraud that totalled £39,383 in illegal council tax, housing benefit and income support payouts made between August 30 2010 and May 4 2014.

She was jailed by Judge Amjad Nawaz who told her: "

Public funds are stretched and those who engage in cultivated dishonesty involving those funds deserve to go to custody.

"This is not just to make a defendant aware of the consequences of such action, it also sends the clear message that those engaged in wholesale dishonesty will go to prison."