A woman hid her family inheritance from the benefits agency so she could con it out of thousands of pounds.
Thandilyn MacMaster cheated the agency out of nearly £6,000 after failing to declare she had inherited money from her late mother.
MacMaster, 45, admitted carrying out the social security fraud by failing to alert the agency to her change in financial circumstances.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told yesterday that MacMaster had started paying back the fraudulent claim at £100 per month.
She admitted illegally obtaining £5,846 in benefits when she appeared in the dock before Sheriff Keith O’Mahoney.
MacMaster, Strathmiglo, had sentence deferred yesterday so the sheriff could get a supplementary social work report and establish how much she had paid back so far.
Fiscal depute Gavin Burton told the court: “It stemmed from the death of the accused’s mother. Money was received when she cashed in her mother’s pension.”
Solicitor David Sinclair, defending, said: “The line was crossed whereby she received an inheritance from her mother.
“She has had difficulty following her mother’s protracted illness and then death and the loss of that support network for her children. She has been a bit of a maelstrom of emotions.”
He confirmed to the court that she had started paying back the cash but said she had only managed to pay back around £700 so far.
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