A 52-year-old Fife woman has been jailed for three years for fraudulently obtaining almost £40,000 in welfare benefits.
For six years Stephanie Bowden falsely claimed she had separated from her husband and was living alone, unemployed, with her two children.
The scam was finally uncovered, however, and when Bowden, of Elizabeth Crescent, Newport, stood trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court last month, a jury refused to believe her version of events. She returned to court yesterday for sentencing.
Defence agent Ross Donnelly said his client was “not someone who has enjoyed a particularly easy life” and pointed to difficulties in her childhood and in her married life.
She also suffered from “a number of health” difficulties said Mr Donnelly, including mental health problems, and was seen as “a very low risk of re-offending”.
Sheriff Craig McSherry told Bowden , a first offender, “The jury, in my view, accepted there was a deliberate and long-standing plan for six years to pretend that you and your husband were separated. Neighbours said he was living there and that there was no sign that you had separated.”
The sheriff said he had to take regard to guidelines from the Lord Justice Clerk in terms of the sentencing for varying amounts in benefit fraud cases. He jailed Bowden for three years and she left the dock in tears to begin her sentence.