Facebook fail: Wedding pictures catch out benefit cheat bride

A benefit cheat who claimed she was a single mum-of-three to swindle £57,000 of taxpayers’ cash has been jailed – after she posted pictures of her wedding day on Facebook.

Lying Wendy Cooper, 44, pocketed £57,210 in housing and council tax benefits and income support between September 2004 and October 2013.

But she was caught out by the Department of Work and Pensions when investigators spotted she posted pictures of her wedding day on Facebook last November.

A court heard she married husband Clifford Smith, 53, in September 2004 but continued to pretend to the authorities that she was a struggling single mum.

Shockingly, brazen Cooper also had five jobs - including one at Coventry City Council - but carried on claiming free hand-outs.

Yesterday she was jailed for eight months at Leamington Spa Justice Centre after she admitted 21 charges of failing to notify the DWP of a change in her circumstances.

Judge Richard Griffith-Jones said: "The problem I have is this: everyone is conscious of the constraint on public money, which is affecting all sorts of services.

"She has fiddled the public out of £57,000 when the National Health Service is striving to get machines to save people’s lives and nurses have been having their pay held back.”

He told Cooper: "You effectively stole from the public; and I’m very sorry, but I can’t overlook this.

"At the end of the day a message has to be sent to people who are prepared to steal public money that the courts will seek to deter them from doing it."

Cooper, of Canley, Coventry, began claiming benefits legitimately but continued to pretend she was single after she got married to delivery driver Clifford Smith.

Prosecutor Jane Sarginson said: "On nine separate forms over the period of time she included changes of address etc; but whenever asked to indicate whether she had a partner she ticked the box to say she was single.

"She was married to Mr Smith, but even when interviewed she denied she was married and said they were just good friends.

"But on her Facebook page there is even a photograph of her in her wedding dress, as well as references to going shopping with her husband."

And not only was Cooper failing to declare her marital status, she also failed to declare that, for all but nine months over the nine years, she was working.

Miss Sarginson added: "She has had five different employers, and for a period of time she actually worked for Coventry City Council."

                                                                   [When weddings go wrong]

Cooper, whose jobs included working in care homes, had also worked for Brook Street UK, First Personnel, Professional Personnel and Ideal Care Homes – but only ever declared one period of employment.

Ian Windridge, defending, said: "The lady has clearly got herself into a situation of her own making.

"Having told the lie once, the lie has to go on; and so it continued, and she wasn’t strong enough to break the cycle.

"This is not a lady who was living a lavish lifestyle.

"In terms of those who obtain large sums of money in one or two large transactions, this has only kept the family afloat to the tune of around £6,000 a year."

Mr Windridge added that Cooper has repaid £400.

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