A court heard she ‘did not benefit personally’ by pretending she was using an officially-registered child minder but ‘repeatedly provided false information and false invoices over a period of three-and-half years’
Theresa Abur, pictured outside Hull Crown Court(Image: Hull Live)
A benefit cheat fiddled more than £46,700 in wrongful payments by creating completely false invoices to pretend that she was using an officially registered child minder – when really it was just a friend of hers. Mother-of-four Theresa Abur kept the lucrative childcare scam going for about three-and-half years and she was fleecing an “already overstretched” welfare system, Hull Crown Court heard.
Abur, 36, of 21st Avenue, north Hull, admitted fraud between March 18, 2021 and September 17, 2024 by declaring false childcare costs as part of a claim for Universal Credit to the Department of Work and Pensions. She also admitted supplying false childcare invoices as part of the fraud.
Ben Hammersley, prosecuting, said that Abur pleaded guilty on the basis that she claimed benefit to pay for what was supposed to be an Ofsted-approved child minder but the person was actually not an Ofsted-registered child minder but a female friend. The friend received the wrongly obtained money, not her.
Abur provided false invoices and bank statements to support her claim for Universal Credit regarding childcare costs for, at first, three children but then four. The total overpayment of benefit was £46,770.
The fraud was “sophisticated” and took place over a long period of time. A large number of false invoices were created and there was a considerable financial gain, although it was not to Abur herself.
“The overpayment is already being re-collected,” said Mr Hammersley. Abur had no previous convictions.
Holly Thompson, mitigating, said that the fraud was a prolonged course of conduct. “She was not motivated by personal gain,” said Miss Thompson.
“The defendant expressed high levels of remorse and she felt significant pressure was being put on her by way of the situation that she found herself in. She felt that she had nowhere else to turn.
“There is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation. She is a low risk of reoffending.”
Abur was of “very, very low financial means” and she was studying so that she could better the lives of herself and her children. The fraud was not committed to put the money towards “designer goods and fancy holidays”.
Recorder Nathan Moxon told Abur: “You forged invoices to claim, from the Department of Work and Pensions, money to cover the cost of childcare from Ofsted-registered child minders when your children were not, in fact, being looked after by someone who was Ofsted-registered. The offending was conducted over a sustained period of time.
“You repeatedly provided false information and false invoices over a period of three-and-half years. You did not benefit personally. There are high levels of remorse, you work and you study.
“The welfare system is there to protect the most vulnerable. It is already overstretched and the system can not tolerate being abused.”
Abur was given a two-year suspended prison sentence, with a probation requirement.
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