A woman who fraudulently claimed more than £30,000 in benefits after inheriting money from her father’s estate has been spared jail because of her health issues.
Sheriff Elizabeth Munro also told Rebecca Sloan, 55, of St Fillans Road, that she was persuaded not to send her to jail after hearing she had repaid the money.
Sloan, who appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court for sentence, had previously appeared in court in a wheelchair and admitted that between July 15 2008 and January 30 last year at St Fillans Road she failed to notify the Department for Work and Pensions that she had received capital in excess of the prescribed limit of £16,000 and received £17,052.80 of income support to which she was not entitled.
She also admitted that between July 21 2008 and January 22 last year at St Fillans Road she failed to notify Dundee City Council that she had received capital in excess of £16,000 and received £15,538.48 of housing benefit and council tax benefit to which she was not entitled.
Depute fiscal Nicola Gillespie told the court that Sloan had opened a bank account in 2008 and deposited £74,000 into it.
She said: “Had she declared to the Department for Work and Pensions or Dundee City Council that she was in receipt in July 2008 of £74,000 she would not have been entitled to the benefits.”
Sloan’s solicitor Kevin Hampton told the court her father had died and she had inherited the money. He said she had taken the death very badly and “simply was unable to cope”.
He said: “It was fully repaid in June of last year. The money she did inherit she had to live off because the benefits had stopped and now she is of very little income.”
Addressing Sheriff Munro, he added: “She is not suitable for unpaid work which I think leaves you with a very stark choice between a custodial sentence and a restriction of liberty order.”
Sheriff Munro said: “If it wasn’t for the fact that she had paid back all the money it would be a prison sentence.”
Sloan was given a six-month restriction of liberty order to run between 7pm and 7am daily.