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An Abbots Langley woman has escaped a stint behind bars after being let off for fraudulently claiming more than £60,000 pounds in income support and housing and council tax benefits. The lucky woman, a 52-year-old-mother of two, was given a suspended prison sentence instead. St Albans Crown Court heard last month how she had been under the influence of her bullying husband and had been fearful of what would happen if she stopped making the dishonest claims. The woman in question pleaded guilty to three charges of failing to notify a change in her circumstances. She asked for 367 similar offences to be taken into consideration. She was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years. But Recorder Barry Kogan told her it wasn't the end of the story and in December she will have to appear in court again for confiscation when she will be ordered to repay the money back. The court heard how the Abbots Langley resident had been caught up in a nightmare marriage. Claire Harden prosecuting said her husband was emotionally, physically and verbally abusive towards her. As a result she left him and moved out of the matrimonial home in the Abbey Park estate, Abbots Langley, in 1993. That same year she made a perfectly legitimate claim for income support because she was unable to work. The claim was successful and she began receiving the payments. However, when she returned to her husband the following year she failed to notify the Department for Work and Pensions of her change in circumstances. She then continued to receive the payments up until 2005. The prosecutor then told of how in February 2002 the woman had left her husband and this time went to live at an another local address.
Shortly afterwards she made a claim for housing and council tax benefit which, because of circumstances, was again perfectly legitimate. She began receiving payments for that but when she moved back to her husband in 2003, she again didn't tell Three Rivers District Council and the money continued to roll in. Miss Harden said the overpayment of benefits amounted to £61,144. However, in 2005, fraud investigators at Three Rivers District found out what had been going on and called the Abbots woman in for an interview. She immediately admitted her dishonesty. Mr Silas Reid, defending, said the wife was now divorced from her husband. He said there were exceptional circumstances to the case which meant she didn't have to be imprisoned. The barrister described her former husband as an "ogre" who had bullied and ill treated his wife to such an extent that she had suffered a nervous breakdown 13 years ago. Mr Reid said: "Whatever he said she did because there were consequences for her if she didn't." He said she had thought about stopping the dishonest payments that were coming to her but she was fearful of the consequences if she did. "His will effectively destroyed hers," said Mr Reid. After reading a number of letters sent to him by friends and family of the wife, Recorder Kogan said: "It seems to me I can find exceptional circumstances. She has led a dreadful life with a bullying, overbearing husband.”
As well as sentencing her for the offences, he fixed a date for the confiscation hearing which will take place at the end of the year.
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