'Fake mother' jailed over tax con

 

A woman who pretended to have given birth to seven children in 18 months to falsely claim £37,000 in tax credits has been jailed.

 

Victoria Young, 26, of Irlam, Greater Manchester, invented a fictitious family, which included quadruplets and two children born days apart.

 

Revenue and Customs officers arrested Young when she claimed for the seventh child in July last year.

 

She was jailed for 10 months after admitting 10 counts of benefit fraud.

 

Young, of Lancaster Road, who actually has two children - a six-year-old boy and 10-month-old girl - began her deception in January 2005 when she claimed to have given birth to quads - Kier, Kie, Kyla and Conrad.

 

She then claimed a fifth child, Kacey, had been born on 21 September, 2005, and that a sixth, Kelsey, had been delivered six days after that. :lol: (how) :o

 

Her final deception came when she said she had given birth to the seventh child, Jake, on 3 July 2006.

 

Cliff Hathaway, of HM Revenue and Customs, said he hoped the sentence, imposed at Manchester Crown Court, would deter others from tax benefit fraud.

 

He said: "It is a good result for the officers who who've worked hard to secure the prosecution, and hopefully a deterrent for people who may be involved in tax credit fraud or thinking about getting involved."

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

 

I don't think she'll win the criminal mastermind of the year award somehow.

How ridicious is she - honestly how dumb!

But HOW did she get it through ...... don't they actually check if your children exist???

You would have thought they check the application before you claim for a Tax Credit

Just shows how screwed up the system is........

So she claimed to have given birth six days apart...and yet it took until the SEVENTH child a year later before anyone picked up on the con?