Benefits cheat mum given suspended sentence

Chris Willmott

24 October. Updated: 25 October 10:44

A MOTHER of two failed to disclose she had managed to save more than £30,000 out of the disability living allowance she received in respect of one of her sons.
As a result Donna Davison received more than £28,000 in income support and housing and council tax benefit payments to which she was not entitled.
Davison (46) of Triumph Walk, Chelmsley Wood, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to two charges of failing to notify a change in circumstances when making her claims.
She was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for 12 months, with 12 months supervision, and was ordered to take part in a ‘victim workbook’ course.
Prosecutor Kevin Grego said Davison began claiming child benefit in January 1995 on the basis that she was a lone parent with two sons and that she had no savings.
Her only income was child and disability benefit payments she received for her children and, since 1994, she had also been claiming housing and council tax benefits.
But in November 2009, after enquiries which revealed in excess of £30,000 in bank accounts, the Department for Works and Pensions asked to speak to her.
The accounts showed Davison was receiving regular weekly payments of £20 to £40 as well as various one-off deposits ranging from £24 to £1,800.
When she was interviewed Davison gave a statement in which she accepted having various bank accounts.
She said that in respect of one of her children she received disability living allowance - but had never touched that money, which she considered to be her son’s, and had paid it into an account where it had accrued.
Davison also accepted that she did some part-time cleaning work earning £24 a week, received commission payments from a Littlewoods catalogue and had occasionally received maintenance payments from her former partner.
Mr Grego said that between 2004 and November 2009 Davison had received £22,209 in income support and £6,481 in housing and council tax benefit to which she was not entitled.
Matthew Brook, defending, said: “She accepts she was dishonest about the sources of income from her cleaning job, the commission and the maintenance payments.
“But she does not accept she was dishonest in relation to the disability living allowance. It was a state payment, and she believed the state would know about it.”
He added that Davison has repaid £1,500 of the money, and some of the £30,000 has been spent on living expenses after her benefit payments were stopped during the investigation.
Judge Robert Orme said that although the offences crossed the ‘custody threshold,’ it was possible to suspend the sentence.