Mum funded high life with benefits (From This Is Local London)

Mum funded high life with benefits

7:08am Friday 16th December 2005 in

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A mother-of-seven, who lived a life of luxury while claiming every sort of social security benefit, has been spared jail because she has young children and the money was repaid.

Julie Came, 44, claimed nearly £130,000 in housing, council tax and income support benefit while living in a £1million mansion in Cowley, complete with stables, horses, a sports car, people carrier, four-poster bed and plasma-screen televisions in every room.

Her astute property investments doubled the value of the money in the seven years she was claiming.

Her high life came to an end when Hillingdon Council officials became suspicious of her claims and she was arrested at a sumptuous property on the rural edge of the borough in Old Mill Lane, Cowley, Uxbridge.

Appearing at Isleworth Crown Court last June, Came admitted charges of false accounting involving £127,612 and was remanded on bail. Sentence was deferred for six months so that she could arrange the sale of the mansion and repayment of the cash.

Came, who was earning £1,000 a week running market stalls, ploughed much of the cash into properties, including the six-bedroom country estate in Cowley, which had stables and two tennis courts, and another £400,000 house nearby. In the drive way of her mansion was her BMW, a people carrier and a vintage VW.

By the time of her arrest in early in 2003 her astute investment in property had more than doubled the value of the money she obtained to £352,342. She was ordered to repay £223,550 and last month the mansion sold for £975,000.

She first started claiming income support legitimately when living at Bellmore Avenue, Hayes in July 1996, prosecutor William Davis told the court. But shortly after that she received a £36,000 divorce settlement from Stephen Came and did not declare it.

Mr David said: "She continued to claim income support but from a different address - Mansfield Drive, Hayes - and also claimed housing benefit and council tax relief.

"These claims continued until 2003 when another address was given - New Road, Uxbridge. This address was a council housing association property, subject to housing and council tax benefit."

Soon after that move the investigation began.

Under questioning Came admitted she had given false particulars on mortgage applications and said that was down to the men in her life who were unable to get credit. Her counsel Richard Keogh said she was the victim of these men - "an exhusband, ex-partners, the fathers of some of her children."

Judge Sam Katkhuda told her at Isleworth Crown Court: "I would have given you an immediate custodial sentence but you had the good sense to finally admit your offences.

He added: "I have made an order for you to repay money which you have complied with. The sentence is one of two years imprisonment in respect of each of the offences but this is suspended for two years because I have taken note of you special circumstances. You have young children to take care of."