Benefits cheat scammed £100k by faking her partner's death
A benefits cheat who scammed £100,000 of taxpayer's money by faking her partner's death and claiming he was her brother in an elaborate 13-year fraud has been ordered to pay back £25,000.
Mother-of-two Wendy Robinson, 53, of Bilston, West Midlands, swindled the sum after she 'killed off' her partner in 1998 - but the pair were actually living together along with their children while telling the authorities they were brother and sister.
Lorry driver David Spite changed his name to that of her brother David Robinson so Wendy could continue to claim benefits as a single parent.
Mother-of-two Wendy Robinson, 53, (pictured outside court) of Bilston, West Midlands, swindled the sum after she 'killed off' her partner in 1998 - but the pair were actually living together along with their children while telling the authorities they were brother and sister
She illegally pocketed the state pay-outs while the couple splashed the cash on two houses.
As the fraud began to unravel they sold their property in Bilston, West Midlands, making £47,000 in profit which they split between them.
But investigators froze Wendy Robinson's account before she could spend her £25,570 share.
Robinson, who now lives in Yorkshire and claimed to be too ill to attend the hearing, has now been ordered to pay back the profits of the sale or face a year behind bars.
Miss Samantha Powis, pr osecuting at a Proceeds of Crime hearing Wolverhampton Crown Court, said: 'These are monies that can be used towards the debt since they are resting in her dormant account that has been restrained.'
Mr Stephen Hamblett, representing Robinson, conceded that the mortgage on the house, as well as the deeds, had been in both her name and that of her partner's.
Recorder Mr Peter Ievins said: 'She says she has no knowledge of the money, if that is the case she will not miss it.'
Her benefit from the fraud was agreed at £99,465 while her available assets were said to be £23,570. The Recorder ordered that £23,309 from her share of the house sale should be recovered along with £1,800 costs of the case.
Last summer she admitted cheating the Public Revenue of nearly £100,000 at various dates between December 2000 and August 2014 and was given an 18-month jail sentence suspended for two years because of her ill health.
She had appeared at Birmingham Crown Court in a wheelchair and listed her alleged disabilities on oath to a judge.
She maintained she was suffering from a string of health problems, including spastic cerebral palsy and a degenerative spine condition.
Robinson left rented accommodation in 2000 claiming she would be living with another brother John, who knew nothing of the fraud, at the home of her late parents in Coseley, West Midlands.
In reality she and her partner had bought a house in West Bromwich with her partner which was then sold for £78,000 when they moved to the Bilston home.
The fraud began to fall apart in 2013 when a query over her claims for council tax benefit at her parents' former home revealed she had bought the house in West Bromwich.
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