Mum found guilty after lying about baby’s father

Mar 10 2008 South Wales Echo

A MOTHER is to be sentenced as a benefit cheat after failing to tell a council that the landlord she was paying her rent to was also the father of her baby.

Cardiff Crown Court heard Samantha Macatangay, 33, told the Child Support Agency she had an affair with a married man then put down on their forms that it had been a one-night stand after she said they pressed her for name.

“She couldn’t admit the child was his or the game would be up,” said prosecutor Byron Broadstock.

She signed housing benefit application forms for Rhondda Cynon Taf council after moving into the area from Rumney, Cardiff, claiming that she and her children were no relation to the house owner.

She received more than £4,000 in housing benefit between 2005 and 2006 for the property in School Street, Wattstown.

But fraud investigators working for RCT discovered that the landlord – builder Christopher Phillpotts -– was also named as the father on her younger child’s birth certificate.

She told the court she was already pregnant before they started their relationship.

Mr Phillpotts supported her, telling a jury he had agreed to put his name on the birth certificate and told all his family and friends he was the dad because they were going to spend their lives together.

But he said the relationship became very “on and off” although they later had another child. Defence barrister Stephen Thomas said the couple didn’t have to prove anything and were not obliged to take a DNA test to prove their point.

“It’s up the prosecution to prove their case – that he is the father and that she was guilty of failing to notify the council of a change in her circumstances after their child,” he told the court.

Mr Broadstock claimed: “They’ve lied because they knew they were getting housing benefit they were not entitled to.”

The jury unanimously convicted her of deceiving the council and she was bailed until sentence is passed later this month.

david.james@mediawales.co.uk