Benefits fraudster who wrongly claimed 67k in benefits has jail sentence slashed
A woman who falsely claimed disability benefits while being filmed running 5K has had her prison sentence reduced by appeal judges.
Annette Bond, a 50-year-old former care worker, fraudulently received £67,062 in benefits over a nine-year span, which led to an investigation by fraud officers.
Bond, from Shielhill Park, Stanley in Perthshire, was recorded regularly running near her home, which resulted in her prosecution.
Earlier this year, she was sentenced to two years in jail for benefit fraud, committed between April 2009 and November 2018, for failing to notify the Department of Work and Pensions about a change in her physical condition that affected her eligibility for disability benefits related to care and mobility.
Bond did not report improvements in her physical abilities, contrary to the information she initially provided in her benefit claim.
Sheriff William Wood told the defendant that she must have been aware that she did not meet the criteria for the benefits she was receiving.
He told Perth Sheriff Court: “Your conduct can only be characterised as a prolonged and egregious course of dishonesty, for which there is no excuse.”
Bond’s lawyers contested the length of her sentence, and judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh reduced it to 18 months.
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Lord Matthews, who heard the appeal with Lord Armstrong, said the appellant was a first offender whose condition appeared to be variable.
The court heard that the sheriff “overemphasised” what he saw as aggravating features of the case.
He decided he would quash the sentence imposed on her and reduce the jail term.
Bond’s solicitor advocate Iain Paterson KC told the appeal judges she was originally diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and continued to have underlying health conditions.
Paterson added that the claim she made was not fraudulent from the outset.
He said: “There was a requirement for her to go back if her health improved. This was something which she did not do.”
Bond faced difficulties at her initial prison in Stirling due to her health conditions but has since been transferred to a centre in Dundee.