Crime pays

Carolyn Fernie swindled taxpayers out of £56,000 over 19 years by pretending to be unemployed tenant in a flat rather than its owner.

She was given council housing benefit to cover her “rent” of up to £270 a month — and used it to pay off the mortgage in eight years. She also used it for a £1,000 annual maintenance charge and was exempted from paying council tax.

Even after settling up the mortgage she went on claiming handouts for another 11 years. She bought the flat for £30,000 in 1987 and it is now worth £100,000, so she has made at £70,000 profit. But no application has been made for her to hand it over because she has repaid the money she cheated out of Bournemouth Borough Council — using her elderly parents’ savings.

She admitted 35 deception offences and asked for 213 others to be taken into consideration. The judge said she had “benefited enormously from fraudulent claims”. But he didn't send her to prison, after hearing she is her parents’ carer - he gave her a ten-month suspended sentence and 200 hours’ community service.

Dorset Police and the Department of Work and Pensions confirmed they would not be pursuing her for the flat. And the council said: “She has paid back what she owed.”

Why should "hard working families" respect the law if cheats can prosper? The profit is the proceeds of crime. Those public sector jobsworths should take her profit and use it for the good of the community. There are plenty of more deserving cases than her.

The state is careless of our money. Are these people fit to give our hard earned money away?