Benefit cheat family must pay back stolen £32k

Mar 17 2008 by Liz Keen, South Wales Echo

A COUPLE with four small children cheated the benefits system out of more than £36,000 in a fraud which went on for years.

Gemma Kerr, 24, had just one five-month-old baby when she put in a claim for income support saying she was separated from her husband and unable to work because there was no one to look after her child.

By the time the law caught up with her and Anthony Kerr, 32, they had become parents to three more children and are now expecting their fifth.

Cardiff Crown Court heard how, as their family grew, so did their bank balance.

While Anthony Kerr worked as a taxi driver, the state paid out hundreds of pounds a month in support to his wife – money to which she wasn’t entitled.

In all she received £21,776 in income support as well as housing benefits and council tax totalling £14,520, said prosecutor Tom Crowther.

Kerr’s applications for taxi driver licences exposed the cheating when the local authority realised his address at Elizabeth Avenue, Barry, was the same one his wife used for her benefits.

Mr Crowther said: “They cross-referenced the details with credit agencies and found he had claimed to have been living at that address with his wife for the past four years.

Defence barrister Ruth Smith said pregnant Gemma Kerr was a caring mother who had academic qualifications and hoped to become a nurse.

Her husband is now supporting his family and paying back the £36,296 at the rate of more than £300 a month.

Both were said to be remorseful and pleaded guilty to making false claims.

Recorder Huw Davies QC said they deserved prison sentences but the six-month terms would be suspended because of the effect locking them up would have on their children, now aged six, four, two and 11 months.

He said he was also thinking of the additional cost to the public purse if the state had to look after them while their parents were in prison.

liz.keen@mediawales.co.uk