A mum threatened with prison over a £26,500 benefit fraud has been given extra time to pay off the massive debt in £500 monthly instalments.
A court has given Nadia Begley, 44, four more months to prove she can afford to continue making the direct debit payments from her bank account.
Sheriff Peter Hammond said that given the nature of the charge and the amount of money involved put the case “well and truly in the realms of a custodial sentence”.
He said the matter was “rumbling on with the prospect of imprisonment hanging over her head” but suggested she might eventually dodge prison.
He commented: “What I propose to do is defer sentence for a period of four months for Miss Begley to continue to make payments at the rate of £500 per month and for a supplementary criminal justice social work report and a good behaviour report.
“If she has continued to make payments at the rate of £500 per month at that stage, in the light of the criminal justice social work report – and also if I was told a mandate had been signed regarding payments going forward – I’d be looking at a non-custodial disposal.”
He warned: “I’d be careful not to give any guarantee coming up to what’s expected of her. I’ll also require her personal appearance. She will require to be here on the day the court considers the case.”
Begley earlier shocked Livingston Sheriff Court by revealing she had borrowed £15,000 for a bathroom makeover while awaiting sentence – but hadn’t repaid a penny to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Craig Scott, defending, said Begley had lost two jobs as a result of publicity surrounding the case. However, he provided proof she was continuing to make monthly payments after selling her car and taking out a loan against her house.
It’s estimated it will take her nearly four and a half years to hand back all the tax credits she fiddled by making false claims for five and a half years.
Begley earlier pled guilty at Livingston Sheriff Court to fraudulently claiming £26,500 in Child Tax Credits between April 2012 and September 2017.
She was originally accused of obtaining more than £56,000 in tax credits and Jobseekers’ Allowance by knowingly making false declarations to officials that she was a lone parent when she was in fact married and living with her working husband Mark.
Her assets, including her £220,000 home in Livingston, West Lothian, were frozen by the Crown as part of confiscation proceedings under Proceeds of Crime legislation but in an up-to-date report lodged with the court on Thursday it emerged that the “available amount” was nil.
Begley was ordered to come back to court on 16 December to face sentencing.
