Wednesday, September 11, 2024 - A couple who pretended to have 18 children in a £300k tax credit fraud scam have now been ordered to pay back just £2.
According to Mail Online, HMRC worker, Tracy Ashbridge applied
for handouts for children that did not exist and lied about her own family
having severe disabilities.
The 44-year-old, who was jailed last September, also used
her position at work to alter former legitimate claimants' details to get her
hands on money.
On one occasion, Ashbridge sent her husband Robert a text
which read: 'Shall we have another child?'
When he asked how they would manage, she responded with:
'Not physically, LOL'
The mum-of-four, who earned 11k-per-year in the role she had
held since 2012, used a total of nine bank accounts to receive the payouts
between 2015 and 2019.
She tried to pocket a total of £434,128 and admitted six
charges of fraud.
During a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Newcastle Crown
Court in July it was determined that the total amount she made through her
crime was £305,952 but after an investigation revealed she had no assets she
was ordered to pay back just £1.
At a further hearing this morning her husband, 45, was found
to have made £22,385 through his role in the scam but the court heard he also
has no assets and he was ordered to pay the same sum of £1 or face seven days
in jail.
The husband, who worked as a chef at a care home, had
admitted one fraud charge but prosecutors said he also 'encouraged' his wife's
outrageous dishonesty.
The couple, of Plough Road, Sunderland, could still be ordered to pay back the money they made through crime if they come into any future windfall.
A total of £7,614 seized from their home when they were
arrested, made up of American dollars and euros, was forfeited at today's
hearing.
Judge Gavin Doig told the husband: 'I declare the benefit
figure to be £22,385.21 and the available amount is £1. The confiscation order
is in the sum of £1, with seven days imprisonment in default.
'Mr Ashbridge has seven days to pay that sum.
'I order forfeiture of all cash found on March 6 2019 at the
defendants' home address.'
Judge Doig told Ashbridge at the end of the hearing: 'I
sincerely hope I don't see you again.'
0 Comments