A MUM who pocketed more than £20,000 in benefits for her baby son nearly 10 years after he died wept as she was spared jail.
Tracey Henry, 46, claimed Universal Credit as a single parent on behalf of Jacob-Henry Green while living in south London between 2017 and 2019.
But baby Jacob-Henry sadly died in 2009, Southwark Crown Court heard.
"When the claim was made in February 2017 the ground put forward was that she was a single mother of one dependent child living with her, and she claimed she was working 25 hours per week," Ryan Thompson, prosecuting, said.
"The claim that was made, the prosecutors say, was false, claiming in respect of a child by the name of Jacob Henry-Green."
Judge Martin-Griffith interjected: "False for a very sad reason."
Mr Thompson said: "In fact, the child died in September 2009, and so, because the child had died, she wasn't entitled to Universal Credit by the amount she was claiming.
"It was fraud from the outset because the child died in 2009 and the claim started in 2017.
"Ms Henry was interviewed, in interview she accepted she made a fraudulent claim, 'She said her older child had helped her complete the application form but she understood what she meant when she signed.
"In fact, she said the child had died two days after its birth.
"She said she had spoken to a nurse around that time and the nurse had told her she could claim in respect of the child and in fact she did," said Mr Thompson.
"In addition, she was claiming child benefit and she indicated she claimed for that because the same nurse had told her she was entitled to six weeks of child benefit."
BENEFITS STOLEN
Henry claimed £20,083.25 in benefits between February 2017 and November 2019, the court heard.
Narida Harford-Bel, defending, said Henry works six days a week as a cleaner for Southwark council and was previously employed by Lambeth council for over ten years.
"She recently received £217 on top of wages from the local authority and her financial circumstances are dire, putting it mildly.
"Her rent is £1,700 per month. She does live with her son in her two-bedroom flat, but sadly he suffers depression and doesn't always work,' said the barrister.
"It is a sorry tale, her financial circumstances being so bad that she doesn't have very much choice but to go after another job.
"She is working. The pre-sentence report says she is a low risk of re-conviction.
"She is causing no harm to anyone, she is trying to make a living.
"I was horrified that she wasn't entitled to legal aid and therefore her family is paying for her representation."
'VULNERABLE'
The court heard Henry moved to the UK from her native Jamaica, where she had been working as a cook, when she was around 23 years old and had been working as a cleaner since.
"She doesn't have any other qualifications other than a passion for cooking.
"She tells me she would love to set up her own business making Caribbean food," said Ms Harford-Bel.
"She comes across as vulnerable. She has lost two children.
'The pre-sentence report suggests she has maladjustive coping mechanisms.
"I had to take some time to explain what all of that meant and what the pre-sentence report was saying."
Judge Griffith told Henry: "Making a claim for benefits on a false basis is a very serious matter, and when you do so and you receive £20,000 the starting point on the sentencing guidelines is one year imprisonment.
"I am not going to lock you up today.
"I was thinking of passing a suspended sentence, but having read this report, the best way forward is to get you to talk to somebody who can organise with you a way to sort out your life, because it sounds to me like you like you are working every hour just so you can eat and house yourself, which cannot go on."
Sentencing her to a 12-month community order with a 25-day rehabilitation requirement, the judge said he hoped the program would allow her to find work "in her passion".
Dressed in black, Henry was in tears by the end of the sentencing remarks as her mother and other relatives supported her from the public gallery.
Henry, from Croydon, south London, admitted dishonestly making a false statement to obtain a benefit.
She was given a 12-month community order with a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement.
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