Tax cheat mum is spared jail sentence (From Warrington Guardian)

Tax cheat mum is spared jail sentence

A JUDGE has spared a benefit cheat from a jail term.

Judge Phillip Hughes said separating Dawn Leather from her family would be a 'devastating blow' for her children.

Instead, he gave her 100 hours community punishment and two years' rehabilitation after she stole £23,308.

Leather, a 41-year-old from Vale Avenue in Orford, had carried on claiming income support, housing benefit and council tax as a single person even though her husband moved back into her home for 21 months from 2002 to 2003.

She pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to notify the authorities of a change in circumstances at Warrington Crown Court on Monday.

Her defence, Lisa Edmonds, argued she should not be jailed despite stealing more than the 'custody threshold' of £20,000.

Leather has three children and the oldest would have to postpone a place at London University studying sport science to care for his two younger brothers if she went to prison.

Judge Hughes heard Leather expressed 'genuine remorse and regret' but told her: "If you don't take the opportunity I am giving you, if you betray the trust I am putting in you, and you come back before the court, and if I have anything to do with it - you will be going straight to prison."