By Eric King-
A woman deemed unfit for work will loose her home and be forced to pay thousands in compensation.
Maureen Hooghwinkel had been claiming income support since 2002 for a host of health problems which requires her to take over a dozen medications every day.
However, it recently emerged that for over for four and a half years, she had been receiving payments from her ex husband which she failed to declare. On October 4 this year, she admitted failing to notify the authorities of a change of circumstances, thereby becoming liable to repay the overpayment’s.
Hoogwinkell was in the process of repaying the money when her fate was worsened in court. At Norwich Crown Court today District Judge Stephen Holt, ordered confiscation of the remaining £17,368.15. The order is to ensure she pays for the extra payments made to her from which she benefited. The order means she will loose her home and all goods worth money in order to try to recoup the overpayment. It is unlikely she has enough goods worth the debt she owes, but her fate means she will have to pay a considerable amount from her benefits to try to fill in the gap.
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Given her medical health, the judgement will traumatise her, but this is the consequence of trying to evade the system with fraudulent practise.
Andrew Oliver, prosecuting, told the court Hooghwinkel had been of previous good character, but her character has now been stained making her former good character irrelevant to her case. Being of good character is merely a formal status, those who commit crimes without detection are really of bad character, but yet to be discovered. Oliver told the court:
“The overall position is there was a claim for benefits for which she was not entitled for nearly 235 weeks, with a total overall payment of £18,078.55,” he said. “During that period she had been receiving payments from her ex husband that had not been declared.“
The defendant was interviewed and accepted she had received various letters but she did not generally read them. She said she had initially worked but health problems had taken their toll.
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“She was asked about money she received from her ex husband and said she believed it was some sort of pension which had stopped six or seven months prior to her interview with the DWP. She said she spent the money on her children and believed she had received it for about 10 years.”
Mitigating on her, Simon Gladwell told the court she wanted to do unpaid work but he feared her health problems might be “setting her up to fail”.
“She is very sorry for what she has done,” he said. “She is in fear that as a result of the confiscation order she will lose her bungalow in order to pay the £18,000. It is useful to her because of her physical problems.” Sorry is never good enough , all criminals are always sorry for their offences once caught. Regret is a natural consequence of impending punishment for crimes.
Judge Holt said there would be “no question of custody” for Hooghwinkel.
“You have a number of health issues and your strongest piece of mitigation is your remorse and early guilty plea, saving the court’s money at a trial which may well have been in excess of the sums being considered here,” he told her.
Hooghwinkel, of Brooke Avenue in Caister, was given a 12 month community order with 75 hours of unpaid work. A confiscation order was made for £17,368.15, to be paid within three months.
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