£20,000 benefit cheat spared jail - thanks to red tape (From The Northern Echo)

£20,000 benefit cheat spared jail - thanks to red tape

7:14pm Thursday 4th December 2008

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A benefit cheat who claimed over £20,000 she was not entitled to will be spared jail - becuse her case took too long to get to court.

Joanne Douglas, 32, received the overpayment because she failed to inform the Department of Work and Pensions that her partner was working.

She was interviewed by DWP investigators in 2005, but it was just yesterday her case was before Newcastle Crown Court where she pleaded guilty to dishonestly failing to notify a change of circumstances.

Judge Beatrice bolton said the wheels of justice at the DWP were "appallingly slow" and asked why Douglas had been waiting for three years to receive her punishment.

Prosecutor Susan Hirst, for the DWP, said: "I don't have any adequate explanation for the delay".

Judge Bolton adjourned the case for two weeks so a pre-sentence report can be prepared.

The judge told Douglas: "Ordinarily this would result in a custodial sentence but in your circumstances, havig regard to the long wait you have had, it seems to me it would be grossly unfair to send you immediately to custody."

The judge said the normal sentence would have been nine months behind bars, but she will suspend the jail term when Douglas is formally sentenced because of the delay in the case coming to court.

Douglas, of Townsend Road, Thorney Close Estate, SUnderland, was granted bail until her next appearance.

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