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Woman claimed for fake foster kids

8:00pm Tuesday 24th August 2010 in News By Tom Parkes

BENEFITS cheats are being warned they will be hunted down after a woman claimed £28,000 for caring for foster children who did not exist.

Lisa Jensen, of Feering, will be electronically tagged after she admitted the fraud at Ipswich Crown Court.

An investigation by HM Revenue & Customs exposed the phoney claims, made over a period of several years.

Spokesman Bob Gaiger said: “The vast majority of tax credit claimants are honest, and claim only what they are entitled to.

“But those who think they can beat the system and gain advantage over everyone else without consideration or second thought should be worried.

“We will not hesitate to prosecute those who flout the law.”

Jensen, 40, of Domsey Chase, sent her first claim for tax credits and child care to Revenue and Customs in November 2005.

She then called the helpline numerous times over the following months to increase her claims, adding extra children and childcare costs each time.

To explain all the changes she said she was a registered foster carer.

But when investigators examined the paperwork, they found the fostering companies she had named either did not exist or were unconnected with childcare.

Jensen was handed an eight month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to pay costs of £500 within four months.

She will be tagged for three months and made subject to a curfew between 8pm and 6am.

Revenue and Customs will investigate further to find out how much of the £28,815 claimed by Jensen was banked, before bosses smelt a rat, to see if confiscation proceedings will be worthwhile.

Comments(17)

Anna Key says...
10:23pm Tue 24 Aug 10

Not defending this but funny how the headline's never 'Tax cheat faces jail.' Cameron claims Benefit fraud costs up to £5.2bn, but the C.A.B estimate £16bn. goes unclaimed. Yet the National Fraud Authority's (agency of Attorney General's office) figures show that tax evasion costs the country £17bn, but less than I in a 1000 investigations result in prosecution. Numbers that demonstrate that while Cameron may not preach class war, he does most certainly practice it.

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itsgary says...
8:26am Wed 25 Aug 10

At least tax evasion is paying tax on something you have earned/ have.
Benefit fraud is robbing the tax payer of something you never had or where entitle to, funny that even now we have got rid of "New Labour" and we have a government with the guts to sort it out, or attempt to, we have the lefties moaning and calling out its a"class war".
I thought our Maggie had put an end to all that when she gave the unions a well deserved good hiding!!!!

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love Dr says...
9:43am Wed 25 Aug 10

what makes these scum bags this is alright to take tax payers money,tell me this woman stole £28,815 and got fined only £500 how is this justice..

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Say It As It Is OK? says...
10:17am Wed 25 Aug 10

love Dr wrote:
what makes these scum bags this is alright to take tax payers money,tell me this woman stole £28,815 and got fined only £500 how is this justice..
Not justice....but it does send a clear message out to other "benefit cheats".

Mainly that they can happily continue in their dishonest ways, in the full knowledge that a small fine and just a slap on the wrist is all they are likely to get, if caught!

Who said crime doesn't pay?

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julieee says...
12:36pm Wed 25 Aug 10

what's the point of her having a curfew when the benefits office isn't open? make the curfew when the office is open!

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Ozzie says...
1:23pm Wed 25 Aug 10

I have to say that electronic tagging is not a deterrent.What will she be doing at all other times of the day? Attending DWP offices to find other fraudulent options? SUrely the correct penalty should have been a period of 3-6 months in which custody was the only option. Far too lenient a sentence!

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smokeyjoe says...
5:01pm Wed 25 Aug 10

She should have become a politician, maintained she had claimed by mistake and offered to pay it back. No crime committed.

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25414nora says...
9:14pm Wed 25 Aug 10

I too am not defending any false claim for benefit. Although I have just heard on BBC news of our Con-Dem government's measures which are really going bash the least well off. This being so, then we must all be prepared for the inevitable back lash. 'I'm no lefty, read into this what you may, but When push comes to shove, our people WILL survive, WILL feed their kids...

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Boris says...
10:20pm Wed 25 Aug 10

Tax evasion and benefit fraud are both equally despicable. They involve cheating the rest of the community.
The staffing cuts promised by the Con-Lib government will no doubt lead to even fewer of these cheats being unmasked. Another false economy.

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love Dr says...
7:12am Thu 26 Aug 10

agree with you on this one Boris. With all these benefits how much of the money really goes on the children ?

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Anna Key says...
12:47pm Thu 26 Aug 10

Itsgary said - 'At least tax evasion is paying tax on something you have earned/ have.'
Itsgary - That sentence doesn't even make sense, because evading tax clearly means NOT paying it. And I'm sorry that you failed to grasp my very simple figures.
Boris - Tax evasion and benefit fraud are NOT equally despicable. A couple of years back when on the dole I was living on £14 a week, and if somebody had offered me a tenner to do a couple of hours gardening I would most certainly have jumped at the chance. Unfortunately I never had the opportunity, but if I had how is it comparable to a tax cheating billionaire who makes his money by exploiting us workers?
Thanks to Nora (who from our previous clashes I know is certainly not a 'leftie', and she probably doesn't agree with everything I've said here) for showing that us 'lefties' do not monopolise an intelligent view of this issue.

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Anna Key says...
5:59pm Thu 26 Aug 10

By the way I should have said I lived on £14 a week after paying rent and utilities. That is simply not enough to live on. And it's funny how we never hear politicians bang on about benefit fraud when times are good. But when unemployment's high they then decide it's time to put the boot into the poor. You'd think if they genuinely thought it a big problem it'd be the other way round.

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Boris says...
3:09am Fri 27 Aug 10

Anna, both crimes are equally despicable, in kind. What may differ is the degree. For example, stealing £28,000 is despicable, but stealing £28,000,000 (which a major tax evader such as Lady Porter might do) is a thousand times more despicable.

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love Dr says...
7:20am Fri 27 Aug 10

when im old sitting in my rocking i can say i didnt claim benefits i worked hard doing long hours to survive.......

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Klaus Waugh says...
11:42am Fri 27 Aug 10

What so many of the above comments fail to comprehend is that the current system forces claimants into a twilight economy. The £5 earnings disregard (the amount a single claimant can earn in a week, after that, any money earned is deducted pound for pound from benefits), was set way back in 1988 by the Thatcher government, hardly known for its compassion. So in other words, earning the minimum wage, a claimant today can only work for 52 minutes 41 seconds a week before they're working for nothing. Not surprisingly, many people choose not to declare their earnings. The earnings disregard needs to be raised massively (a rise that merely allows for inflation would see this more than double), as it will allow unemployed people to take part-time work and actually get rewarded for it - and surely even the most bigoted Tory would agree that working part-time is better than not working at all? As people are earning (and declaring) some of their income the benefits bill will reduced, and more money will be circulating at the lowest end of the economy which can then boost consumer spending, and business. Those interested can check out the 'Need not Greed' campaign website (a coalition of charities including Oxfam), which campaigns to raise the earnings disregard.

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BillBill says...
8:28am Mon 30 Aug 10

smokeyjoe, dovercourt says...
5:01pm Wed 25 Aug 10

"She should have become a politician, maintained she had claimed by mistake and offered to pay it back. No crime committed."


Hear hear - excellent comment... then after a system was put in place to prevent her overclaiming she could moan and whinge about it just like all the MPs are doing. After being caught with their hands in the cookie jar some of them have the temerity to then moan because the cookie jar now has a lid on it...

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Anna Key says...
11:20am Mon 30 Aug 10

love Dr wrote:
when im old sitting in my rocking i can say i didnt claim benefits i worked hard doing long hours to survive.......
You hope.

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