‘Pressured’ benefit cheat is locked up

A FRAUDSTER who was “pressured” by her husband into making more than £60,000 of illegal social security claims has been jailed for 11 months.

Lesley Anne Robertson, 49, was yesterday jailed for wrongfully receiving £60,410.39 in income support, housing benefit and council tax payments over an eight-year period.

Robertson, of Granton, told government employees that her husband, George, wasn’t working and that she had no income.

But her partner was actually earning a wage working as a porter at Edinburgh University.

She was snared in March 2010 after Benefits Agency staff cross-checked the couple’s national insurance records.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard how husband George had encouraged her to con the authorities out of taxpayers’ cash.

Defence solicitor David Allan told the court that the first offender had experienced a traumatic event which had placed her and other members of her family under stress.

Mr Allan also said that her husband had influenced her into making the fraudulent claims.