Benefits cheat’s single mum scam busted after hubby’s Y-fronts were found at her home
Court convicted married mother who told lied to tell officials she had split with her trucker husband 12 years ago
A CHEAT claiming benefits as a single mum was exposed after officials found her husband’s underpants in a drawer.
Carol Pounder, 48, told them she split from trucker John in 2004, and pocketed more than £11,000 in housing benefit and income support.
But they took holidays together and he was giving their marital address as his own plus listing his wife as his emergency contact at work, a court heard.
Acting on a tip-off, the Department for Work and Pensions put a watch on the home in Burnley in 2014.
They saw Mr Pounder, 58, coming and going and, in a search, discovered his socks, passport and payslips.
Officials also came across the Y-fronts bearing the slogan “I’m the best dad”.
Pounder said he had stayed to help care for their daughter Laura, 25, who had mental health problems, and insisted the pair were divorcing. Months earlier, she had told DWP officials she lived alone.
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Robert Alias, defending, said mum-of-one Pounder, who had a previous conviction for fleecing benefits, had “made an error of judgment”.
Pounder got a suspended jail sentence after admitting benefit fraud at Burnley crown court.
