Benefit cheat mother-of-six jailed for falsely claiming £53,000 to put children through private school (at least one of them got a law degree)

A mother-of-six was jailed today for cheating the benefits system out of tens of thousands of pounds to put two of her children through private school.
Juliet Flowers, 42, dishonestly claimed more than £53,000 over ten years and continued to claim even after she was convicted of fraud in 2006.
The crown court at Leamington heard she used the money to put two of her children through private education.

Scammer: Mother-of-six Juliet Flowers was jailed at the crown court in Leamington (above) for dishonestly claiming more than £53,000 in benefits to put two of her children through private school

Ironically, one of them, now aged 22, went on to obtain a law degree.
Prosecutor Daniel White said Flowers obtained £41,035 in income support and £12,695 in housing and council tax benefit to which she was not entitled between 2001 and 2011.
In 1997, she had received a lump sum of £76,000 following the death of her Rover worker partner and then as his next of kin she received his £800 a month pension entitlement.

 

But despite the income, she began making fraudulent benefit claims in August 2001.
In 2006, Flowers was convicted of benefit fraud after it was found she failed to declare her mother was her landlady, for which she was given a conditional discharge.
But her bigger lie of not declaring her true financial position went undetected at that time and she soon began making false claims again.
When she was finally questioned about it in April 2011, she accepted failing to declare the pension she was receiving.
She pleaded guilty to one charge of cheating the public revenue and three of making false representations to obtain benefits.
Nicholas Smith, mitigating, said: 'The payment she was made for the death of her husband was lost because she went into a business venture to run a restaurant, and it failed.'

'She did it for what, from her point of view, were the best of intentions: to put her children through a private education'

            Nicholas Smith, mitigating

Mr Smith said Flowers has six children, four of whom are aged 12 or under, including a three-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy.
She also helps care for her elderly mother.
Flowers, from Binley, Coventry, had come to court 'with her bag packed' and had made arrangements for the children to live with her partner if she was jailed.
'She is sorry for what she has done. She did it for what, from her point of view, were the best of intentions - to put her children through a private education,' said Mr Smith.
'And it has been successful, because her 22-year-old daughter has, somewhat ironically, obtained a degree in law.'
Jailing Flowers for a year, Judge Marten Coates said: 'Judges are most reluctant to send mothers to custody; but your case is one of deliberate dishonesty.
'When you appeared before the magistrates in 2006 that should have been the clearest warning to you, but you resumed your activity in 2007.
'You have been dishonest right from the very beginning and have stolen £53,000 from the community in which you live.
'I am sorry about your family demands, but I have no alternative but to pass an immediate sentence upon you.'

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