A jailed grandmother who fiddled more than £42,000 in benefits will have her council house taken away from her.

At a hearing at Croydon Crown Court a district judge gave Croydon Council the go ahead to repossess Theresa Aldous’s home in Godstone Road, Kenley.

She has also been ordered to pay back £8,673.65 rent arrears.

Aldous was sentenced to six months in prison in April 2012 after lying to the authorities to claim widow’s benefit and housing benefit on a council house in which she no longer lived.

Council investigators found Aldous had inherited £19,000 from her late husband and given it to her family.

This is despite her being told she owed the council and the Department for Work and Pensions for benefits she had falsely claimed.

In September 2012, a judge issued a confiscation order for the same amount following an investigation into her finances under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

She was sent back to prison for nine months on January 14 for failing to pay back the money.

 

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