Couple who pretended to have 18 children for £300k benefit fraud scam are ordered to pay back just £2 after spending all the money

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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.' The post Couple who pretended to have 18 children for 300k benefit fraud scam are ordered to pay back just 2 after spendingallthemoney appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.
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