Published: Monday, 14th December, 2009 3:05pm

Benefit cheat escapes jail

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A BENEFIT cheat has received an eight-month suspended sentence after claiming more than £10,000 in housing benefit and council tax.

Monique Astruc was found guilty on six counts of making false representation to the Royal Borough while living in Laburnham Road, Maidenhead.

On Friday, last week at Reading Crown Court the 42-year-old received a jail sentence of eight months for each of the counts, to be served concurrently.

However, the sentence was suspended for 24 months and a 12-month supervision order imposed.

Ms Astruc who now lives at Kestrel Farm, Hay Lane Slough was also ordered to pay £2,000 towards the costs of the prosecution, to be paid within 12 months.

The offences - four counts of making a false statement under section one of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 and two counts of supplying a fraudulent document under section seven of the Fraud Act 2006 - resulted in benefit overpayments of £10,115.68 made between 29 September 2006 and 17 December 2007 while Ms Astruc was living in Maidenhead.

The case arose after a Royal Borough officer identified that Ms Astruc had failed to declare a member of her household as resident and produced false tenancy documents while claiming housing and council tax benefit based on a low income.

Lead member for finance, Cllr Richard Kellaway said: "This was an intentional effort to defraud the taxpayer by providing information that was proved in court to be false, and the council will not hesitate to take action against anyone in these circumstances."

The council's confidential and free Beat the Cheat line for reporting suspected benefit fraud incidents is on 0500 353300.