Daily Express: Judge frees drug addict mum in £18k benefits con

By Tony Brooks

A JUDGE sparked fury yesterday when he allowed a woman who fiddled benefits to buy drugs to walk free as she had children.

Single mother Nicola Pearson, 31, claimed more than £18,000 in handouts to feed her crack cocaine habit.

But she escaped jail because of the "considerable pressure" placed on courts to keep mothers of young children out of prison.

Critics condemned her treatment as a licence for scroungers.

The former legal secretary punched the air in triumph and danced outside Manchester Crown Court after being given a suspended sentence.

Judge Michael Henshell had told her: "You are an intelligent woman. You became addicted to drugs and you committed offences to fund that addiction.

"You made society at large pay for your cocaine habit. If it wasn't for your children you would be going to prison immediately."

"We are encouraged to think carefully about sending women with children to prison and therefore I will suspend your sentence.

"There is considerable pressure on these courts not to send mothers of young children to prison."

For three years from 2004, Pearson pocketed vastly inflated claims in child tax credit saying it was to cover the cost of sending her daughter and son to nursery even though the son was 13. The fraud continued when she moved to West Lothian, Scotland, in 2005, claiming £325 a week in handouts for nursery care 400 miles away near her old home in Wythenshawe, Manchester.

Her real claim should have been just £32 per week and the children did not attend nursery.

Tax Credit office staff based in Edinburgh detected her scam during a routine audit and she was interviewed by investigators.

She moved back to Manchester and continued to make bogus claims by falsifying her personal details and managed to steal £18,200 before she was charged.

Defence counsel Jonathan Dickenson told the court Pearson was spending "hundreds of pounds a week" on crack cocaine.

Pearson was given an eightmonth prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.

She admitted 15 charges of fraud between January 2004 and September 2007.

Mark Wallace of the TaxPayers Alliance said: "This sends out an appalling message - that you can steal from hard-working taxpayers and get away with it."