A woman who falsely claimed £7,200 in housing benefits has been jailed for six months.
Bernadette Anyakwo of Adelaide Avenue, Brockley, was handed the jail sentence at Blackfriars Crown Court on October 16, 2006.
The 60 year-old pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of dishonestly claiming housing benefit but was found guilty of five counts after a five day trial which ended on September 18.
Anyakwo was found guilty after completing housing benefit claims in which she either claimed no relationship to her landlord or failed to answer the question.
Investigations revealed the person she claimed was her landlord was in fact her son with whom she lived.
During the investigations officers found she had received housing benefit she was not entitled to from July 2002 to February 2003 and from March 2004 to October 2004.
In handing down the sentence, the judge, Recorder Evans told the court the custodial sentence was appropriate because of the amount of the fraud, the time over which it was committed and the fact it affected all taxpayers as it was money from the public purse.
He also commented that it was an easy fraud to perpetrate but a difficult one to detect and costly to track down.
Councillor Helen Klier, Cabinet Member for Resources, said: “This woman is now facing six months in prison because she went out of her way to defraud us of benefits designed to help people in genuine need.
“Lewisham Council will not tolerate this kind of fraud and we will bring the full force of the law to bear on people who we find committing it.
“Anyone who is thinking of cheating should know we are doing all we can to track them down.”
If you suspect fraud or corruption against Lewisham Council you can report it in confidence to the Anti-Fraud and Corruption Team (A-FACT) on 0800 0850119 or reportfraud@lewisham.gov.uk.