not to be overjoyed that a mother of four is being sent to jail for massive benefit fraud?

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

story here

I just wonder what will happen to the children in this case. The crime Amanda Webber committed is serious and she should be punished but taking the mother away from her 8 children for up to 4 years will have a damaging effect on these children. The sentence should be in the community and involve her paying back society with work, making a contribution - not being housed in a prison.

This is not to undermine the seriousness of the offence I just can't see the 'benefit' to society of locking this person up - she is not dangerous - she does need to accept what she has done is so very wrong and make amends this can be done in a community sentence surely. The children should not be punished if it can be avoided.

Just my thoughts on hearing the news.

[ophelia275]

Does anyone know if she will actually have to repay the money?

[Jamillalliamilli]

(Waves cautiously at Donki, and hopes for a pm to tell me if I?ve outed myself please?)

There are people who can be rehabilitated, but usually what you?re doing is giving them in a more expensive form, what they should have been given in the first place to give them the skills to understand things from a different perspective.

Many you'd have an uphill struggle to give them any reason why they should have a problem with what they've done.

Most people are only interested in seeing good and bad, the good lauded and the bad punished.

[Jamillalliamilli]

Ophelia they're going after a confiscation order.

[adverbial]

If was a lesser sum over shorter period of time, and not fraudulently claiming five children had a disability, then OP you might have a point.

But I don't think mob mentality plays a part here, it's a really extreme case of benefit fraud, there was no other punishment to fit the crime. It would be harsher sentence for her had the money been taken from another financial institution.

She didn't really need that money to fund her own school and drama for her children. Just seems to me that greed, and taking the easy route were heavily involved.

[Jamillalliamilli]

Mrs DV I don?t think prison is actually the answer, but I?ve not seen anyone come up with any other consequence for parents who successfully use their children to commit fraud in order to enhance their and their children?s lives, that would actually be any deterrent and wouldn?t damage the children. Are there actually any?

I do have sympathy for her children, their situation?s going to be rotten all ways round, but she hasn?t suddenly been ripped from home and jailed. She?s and her husband and (later) the new partner, have had from late 2009 to prepare and work it out for them as best as they can.

I suspect why it didn?t deter her, is because she thought she?d found a way of doing it that worked and saw herself as high enough up the food chain to not be imprisoned, and still has a fall back story of misunderstood supermum.

I spent a lot of my childhood on V/O?s. It taught me a lot, most of which wasn?t the intended messages, but one that was, was that children will always suffer the consequences of adult decisions, so teaching me that lesson had an effect.

We seem to punish greed and dishonesty more harshly than violent crime and I don't understand why.

It depends who?s guilty of the greed and dishonesty, but as a general rule it?s because those who made law, then developed case law, were more easily able to protect themselves from violence from those under them, than from greed and dishonesty, and not much has actually changed there. (did say I may not have got the intended messages)

[saintlyjimjams]

Justgiving - I knew her from a small, supportive, private online autism support group. Although actually she was a big reason I left (along with almost everyone else) - she had a habit of laying into people. But anyway because it was private it was the sort of place where people shared details (lots on DLA forms as well). Wonder whether she stole our stories for her applications ???

[digerd]

Not being overjoyed that she was allowed to cheat like this as no medical proof was asked for, is an understatement. I am .
Also she should be made to pay the money back with interest plus a large fine.
The children should not suffer for her cheating but they have benefitted from the money.

4 years in prison? Who will look after the children now, their dad(s)?

[MoodyDidIt]

i can't believe it was not picked up earlier

do these benefits people not CHECK stuff, like disabilities etc

i feel sorry for the kids :(

[saintlyjimjams]

Her Queen Bee attempt didn't work that well as we all jumped ship

[saintlyjimjams]

That's the weird thing moody - usually they do. You have to provide a lot of evidence for DLA. I wonder whether she faked it. I know for ds1's last renewal they contacted his paediatrician & headteacher directly as well.

[saintlyjimjams]

I guess most people assume others behave in the way we ourselves would iykwim

[C999875]

I'm kind of torn T.B.H I mean my initial thoughts were :
1 why punish these children for their mother's sins.
2 Where will they go are they going to be separated or together. I would imagine with there being so many they will be separated,
3 That said though parents cannot expect to commit crimes and the law to say "Oh that's fine do what you like, you wont be punished as you have children.
Is 4 years not a tad too much. When you consider Disgusting rapists do not get much longer that that.

CAF275. Fair enough you have no sympathy for Mrs Webber and why should you but what about her children they are as innocent as everyone else they didn't tell their mum to commit benefit fraud. xxx

[mrsjay]

small intenet forums they are a breeding ground for over bearing pushy women who love to lord over people and feel v v important I had to leave 1 it was just too much

[digerd]

mrsjay I too can't stand women like that and I know too many in RL.
< ditto "shudder>. Some are formidable.

[Cocoabells]

I have to say I would live to know how she got away with it. I claim for my son who has spina bifida and they wrote to consultants, gp and school!!!!!

As for her going to prison I have to say if she is willing to lie about her children so much would they not be better off without her?

[PearlyWhites]

To be fair juniper dla is not supposed to provide you with an income even if your dc needs mean you have to give up work to care for them. Dla is purely for your dc care/ mobility needs.

[scottishmummy]

netted £10k month,private education for kids,dance studio at home
no I don't feel this elicits any sympathy. it was fraud on huge scale
this wasn't hand to mouth eke out existence.greedy woman

[scottishmummy]

is this a gender bias for you op?would you feel same about a man?
the really sad thing is that genuine parents have and do struggle with a oppressive system

[Lazyjaney]

Point of the sentence is to deter others, not to cost in for this one case.

[blackbox]

True PearlyWhites but DLA (at MRC or above) triggers carer's allowance, which in turn can mean you're eligible for income support (if you meet the other criteria) - which is a passported benefit for the housing benefit, council tax help, extra tax credits etc that she got. So getting the DLA in the first place can mean you get an income which allows you to survive if you have to give up work. I am a single mum with a child with ASD and he is too old for me to get income support as a single mum, but I continue to get it as a carer, which is just as well, as his needs means that I can't work at all.

I am staggered that this continued for so long and for so many children without triggering investigation tbh. We got DLA without consultant reports or the DWP contacting school, but that's because I sent a heavy package of reports and DS's statement. I wonder whether she actually faked the evidence as someone suggested above, or if she got genuine reports but faked the symptoms by reporting false ones to the consultants. I know that a lot of my reports were based on parental reporting - notifying the doctors about things that had happened at home with DS but not observed directly by them - so I suppose if the mum was calculating she could have read up about typical behaviours in ASD and said that's how her dc were behaving.

[pinkballetflats]

Could be the best thing that's ever happened to them....the example she set is very wrong. If they were to grow up thinking overstepping boundaries to this extent was fine, how long would it be before they ruined their own lives by overstepping boundaries into crime?