LAMEY: DOLE FIDDLING MOTHER FACES JAIL

A mother who claimed more than £20,000 in benefits after failing to admit her estranged husband had move in with her has been warned she faces jail.

Donna Lamey, 52, continued to claim income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit once Docklands Light Railway worker Darren Barrett came back to the family home.

Gambling addict Barrett failed to hand over any money to support the household or the couple’s 13-year-old child, Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Lamey today admitted two counts of fraud relating to her claims to Tower Hamlets council and the Department of Work and Pensions.

Shelley Webster, prosecuting, said Lamey had married Mr Barrett in February 2002, but the couple had separated in the same year.

The mother-of-two allowed her ex to move back into the family home in Hesperus Crescent, Poplar, on the Isle of Dogs in late 2009.

She failed to notify to the council or DWP that she was now living with her husband, who was receiving an income, and claimed a total of £22,899 in benefits over the next 11 months.

Lamey’s case was later investigated and she agreed to attend an interview under caution in which she admitted she was married, but said she would be unable to afford her £250-a-week rent if her benefits were cut.

Police then went to her home to arrest herm after she declined to attend a second interview under caution, and found Mr Barrett at the property.

Miss Webster said: ‘Various documents pertaining to Darren Barrett were found at the address.

‘Among the items were current and previous passports, car insurance, clothing and possessions.’

In total, Lamey claimed £4,962 in income support over the period her ex-husband was living with her, as well as £16,837 in housing benefit and £1,100 in council tax benefit.

Kieran Moroney, defending, said Lamey would still have been entitled to some £5,000 even if she had notified the authorities that her husband was living with her.

‘He is a gambling addict,’ he said.

‘He was going to the bookies and spending substantial amounts of money, and he was not giving her anything.

‘She should have done something.’

The court heard the couple are now living apart again, and she had been evicted from the home they had shared.

Lamey, of (flat 3) 455 Roman Road, in Bow, east London, admitted two counts of failing to notify a change on circumstances between December 24, 2009 and November 16 2010.

Lamey was allowed to remain on unconditional bail until she is sentenced on October 6.

Judge Neil Sanders told her: ‘I want to make it plain, my granting unconditional bail and my ordering a pre-sentence report is no indication as to the possibility of the outcome of this case.

‘As I have indicated earlier, it is quite clear that the range on any view of amounts includes custodial sentences.’

Ends.