A FRAUDSTER who paid for two homes using nearly £100,000 in illegal benefit payments walked free from court last week because she has a 'very serious and progressive' illness.
Beatrice Muir claimed income support and housing and council tax benefits for six years despite having a job on the side - scooping a whopping £99,230 in taxpayers' money.
It emerged in court that the 39-year-old mother used the cash to make mortgage payments on her home in Tudor Court South, Wembley and a second property in Luton.
She was also raking in rent on the second property.
Despite having paid off nearly £64,000 of the money owed, it emerged that Muir had managed this without selling either of her properties, in which she has a combined stake worth £67,000.
Having pleaded not guilty to lying on benefit application forms, she was found guilty after trial in December and was hauled in front of Harrow Crown Court on Friday last week for sentencing.
Judge Alan Greenwood said while the conviction would usually lead to a criminal spending a substantial time behind bars, Muir would avoid jail because of her illness, which was not revealed.
He said: "You thoroughly deserve to go to prison today and for quite sometime. You are a thoroughly dishonest woman who obtained public funds that you were not entitled to and you continually deceived the authorities.
"The reason, in the end, that I have decided I cannot send you to prison is your medical condition. It is a very serious illness and a progressive condition which is getting steadily worse, but the sentence I am passing will serve to act as closely to a prison sentence as possible."
He gave her a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and a six-month curfew order, meaning she cannot leave her Wembley home between 6.15pm and 6.15am.
The Department for Work and Pensions and Brent Council will seek to recover money still owed by Muir.
