Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Woman who had £100,000 in the bank ‘accidentally’ claimed £33,000 benefits

Lorriane Mearns leaving Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
Lorriane Mearns leaving Aberdeen Sheriff Court.

A fraudster who received almost £35,000 in benefits while having more than £100,000 in the bank has been told she’s lucky not to be in jail.

Lorraine Mearns claimed thousands of pounds in taxpayer-funded benefits by lying to officials about how much money she had in the bank over the course of six years.

Between January 2012 and April 2018, Mearns knowingly made false statements to the Department for Work and Pensions about her income to claim £13,368 in employment and support allowance she was not entitled to.

She claimed another £19,960 in housing and council tax benefit between November 2012 and March 2018 by doing the same to Aberdeen City Council.

‘Ludicrous’ to claim it was accidental

The 65-year-old landed in court because she failed to disclose the fact that she had £100,000 in other bank accounts, including some of the proceeds from the sale of her dad’s house.

Defence agent David Sutherland told Aberdeen Sheriff Court it was “ludicrous” that his client maintained she did this “accidentally”.

“For someone to at one point have £100,000 in a bank account and think she could still get benefits is just ludicrous,” he said.

“There is an unexplained £40,000 opening balance in one of the accounts then a significant income from the sale of her father’s house, which was split between her and other family members.

“Those two large deposits clearly breach the terms of agreements. She failed to disclose a material change in her situation.”

He added his client was “lucky” she was appearing in court on a lesser ‘summary’ charge rather than a more serious ‘solemn’ one – for which she could have faced jail time.

“If you were to ask 100 people on the street outside what should happen to Ms Mearns most would say she should be sent to prison,” Mr Sutherland added.

She told social workers it was accidental

He added that the sheriff’s “hands were tied” by the fact this was being dealt with as a summary procedure but suggested the maximum hours of unpaid work and restrictions of liberties be the next suitable alternative to jail.

Sheriff Kevin Duffy agreed it was “fortunate for her” that it was a summary complaint or she might certainly have faced time in prison.

“A lot of things concern me about this,” he said. “But one that I find more concerning is that she said to the social workers that this was all accidental.”

Mearns currently receives universal credit payments and a disability allowance.

‘Deceitful conduct’

Sheriff Duffy added: “These are very serious charges you have pled to, that involve substantial amounts of taxpayers’ money to which you were not entitled.

“Your conduct was clearly deceitful. You had a number of accounts that you did not disclose to the Department for Work and Pensions. You persisted in this deceit as you did not disclose those accounts when cautioned and questioned.”

Sentencing

Mearns, of Jesmond Avenue North, Bridge of Don, has paid back some of the cash but has £18,074 still to return through deductions from her existing benefits.

The balance will need paying back “for some time”, her solicitor added.

She has been ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work and will be subject to supervision for 12 months.

This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.