A BENEFITS fraudster who falsely claimed £75,000 has been hit with a confiscation order – for £1.
Corinna King, 41, gave her partner’s address as her residence and claimed she was paying rent, when in fact she was on benefits.
King, from Edinburgh, claimed £74,566.43 in benefits between March 2002 and January 2012.
In October last year she appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court where she admitted to participation in a fraudulent scheme.
Confiscation proceedings were then raised against her under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to recover the money that she had defrauded for the public purse.
King is incapable of paying back the cash and so a Confiscation Order for the “nominal” amount of £1 was made.
The order means that if King “obtains any assets in the future” the Crown can seize cash up to the full amount owed.
Crown Office spokesman Lindsey Miller said: “Corinna King set out to defraud the public purse of tens of thousands of pounds for her own benefit, over the course of more than ten years.
“The Crown will be even more tenacious in recovering the money than she was in claiming it, and while she may have no assets left at present, today’s order ensures that we can apply to the court to recover future earnings until she has repaid the total of her illegal gains.”
“All funds recovered through confiscation will be added to the £88m already gathered from Proceeds of Crime to be re-invested in the community by Scottish Ministers, through the CashBack for Communities programme.”
