Benefit Cheat Kept £197K Divorce Pay-Out A Secret

A benefit fraudster - granted payments because of her alcoholism - continued pocketing thousands in handouts while keeping her £197,000 divorce settlement a secret.

Kim Sargent, 47, swindled over £50,000, but avoided prison this week after a senior judge declared: "Sentencing policy does not require a court to crush a defendant."

Prosecutor Mr. Silas Reid told Croydon Crown Court: "She legitimately claimed benefits, including income support, because of her inability to work due to alcoholism."

However, Sargent kept her 2007 divorce settlement a secret and for over three years continued claiming benefits despite her bulging bank account.

Sargent, of Penge High Street, Penge pleaded guilty to failing to disclose information regarding her excess capital in relation to claims for income support and housing and council tax benefit between February 19, 2007 and October 18, 2010. 

She also pleaded guilty to fraud by falsely representing she had no capital on November 1 and 14, 2007 in relation to claims for income support and housing and council tax benefit.

A total of £53,281 was overpaid, with the bulk just over £32,000 in housing benefit and the prosecution are pursuing confiscation.

"When questioned she denied the offences and said her mother dealt with all the affairs," added Mr. Reid. "The money is now long gone in relation to the divorce settlement."

The Recorder of Croydon Warwick McKinnon told Sargent: "It is an awful lot of money you obtained that you were not entitled to because you failed to disclose your substantial divorce settlement.

"If you had disclosed it you would not have been entitled to any of the money at all."

Regarding her alcoholism he told Sargent: "That has been a problem for a number of years now."

She was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, suspended for twelve months.