A mother name Tammy Gunter enjoyed US holidays had plastic surgery and was jailed after scamming £70k in tax credits. Tammy Gunter has now been incarcerated for two years while her husband does 6 months bird for assisting wife in her theft.
The former student nurse and mother Tammy Ann Gunter enjoyed holidays in the USA and had plastic surgery has been nabbed questioned and jailed after dishonestly claiming £70,000 in tax credits.
Tammy, 41, lived a “lavish” lifestyle, enjoyed holidays with her husband and took out a joint finance loan for a timeshare property in America whilst claiming she was skint and in need of tax credits. She further claimed she was a single person, made false claims for student finance and an NHS bursary as well as forging a letter purporting to be from HMRC, Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court was told.
On Wednesday this week, she was jailed for two years at the court after pleading guilty to: -
One count of knowingly being involved in a fraudulent activity which was undertaken with a view to Obtaining a gain in the form of tax credits.
One count of forgery
Four counts of fraud and
One count of fraud was ordered to lie on her file.
Her husband Neil Mark Hart, 45, was also sentenced to six months imprisonment after pleading guilty to one count of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, believing it would be committed
The Court was told Gunter lived a “lavish” lifestyle, had undergone plastic surgery in eastern Europe, enjoyed holidays in Las Vegas in 2011 and Florida in 2013 and also took a joint finance loan of $30,000 and to buy a Timeshare property in America.
The Court was also told they operated an unlicensed dog breeding business and Tammy only uses her maiden name in when dealing with public bodies.” The Court heard submission that the pair of scammers were already in a relationship and had been living together as a family since the 5th of December 1997.”
In relation to working tax credits, garage and convenience store worker Tammy Gunter claimed tax credits between January 2007 and August 2016 and asserted she was a single person working at least 16 hours per week. She stated that she had two children and no other income. Thus, dishonestly maintained she was single, yet enjoyed a lavish lifestyle.”
In total Tammy, Gunter received £76,008.63 in tax credits.
Further, she in September 2011, applied to Student Finance Wales in relation to a three-year criminology and law degree at what was then the University of Glamorgan. In that application “She stated again she was single” when information about her marital status was requested.
She received £21,396 as part of her studies for the criminology degree, which the court heard she was entitled to.
On December 16, 2014, Gunter applied for funding from NHS Wales Students Awards Services for the year 2014-15 in relation to a full-time three-year adult nursing degree at the University of South Wales, where she gave her marital status as separated. Mr Gobir said: “She made no reference to her previous funding. This defendant was assessed as an independent student.”
On September 23, 2014, Gunter applied for bursary funding for the nursing degree as an independent student.
Mr Gobir said: “She stated that she was separated and was a single parent with two dependent children.”
She received a bursary of £2,193.24, while her course fees for the 2014-15 academic year were paid – at a cost of £7,352 – which she would have been entitled to.
On the 1st of April 2014, she submitted documents to Caerphilly council, with a letter purporting to be on HMRC-headed paper which claimed to indicate that she had notified HMRC that she had married and Hart had moved into the same property.
The letter raised suspicion with a member of staff who had concerns about its authenticity due to matters including spelling errors and it is inconsistent with other HMRC letters.
The Court heard that if the letter had been accepted as genuine, the defendant would have received £24,593 between 2011-14.
The Court further heard Mr Hart had tried to assist his wife by providing a false address to Merthyr Tydfil council. He contacted the local authority in April 2014 and said he lived in Bedlinog and said he had done so since the previous year.
Mr Gobir said: “The prosecution case is that Neil Hart lied about his address to assist Tammy Gunter with the application.”
The Court heard Gunter also failed to declare a theft conviction from 2000 when applying to be a carer. She worked in the position for several months in 2013 before leaving.
Mr Gobir added: “The total loss to the public purse in effect is £87,450.”
The joint investigation begun in January 2015, led by NHS Counter Fraud Service Wales and involved the Department for Work and Pensions and HMRC.
Byron Broadstock, defending Gunter, said his client’s marriage had been a tumultuous one which has seen the couple live in separate addresses at some stages.
He said: “Many of the purchases that have been described as extravagant, they are out of the ordinary. They were often gestures in reconciliation.”
He added how Gunter had undergone cosmetic surgery in eastern Europe after suffering from low self-esteem. “It wasn’t simply for purely cosmetic reasons”, he said. “It was psychological reasons.”
He said, “much of the purchases” that were made were done so using money Gunter received after the death of her father in 2015.
Jeffrey Jones, defending Hart, said: “He allowed himself to be used in that by making one gesture, in relation to one matter - his own address.”
A hearing is scheduled to take place on February 28 next year regarding Proceeds of Crime Act application.
Sentencing, Judge Peter Heywood said: “That fraud occurred over a significant period of time. There was a degree of sophistication and planning involved.”
The judge added: “You (Gunter) have engaged in a significant course of dishonest conduct for a considerable period of time and you (Hart) foolishly, went along by providing false information, knowing full well what the full situation was.”
Craig Greenstock, lead counter fraud specialist for Velindre NHS Trust and NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership, said: “Tammy Ann Gunter has, by her actions and assisted by Neil Mark Hart, been quite deliberate and calculating when trying to obtain as much money as they could from the individual public bodies.
“It is hoped, therefore, that today’s sentence will show that such a deliberate fraud will not be tolerated and that the NHS, together with other public bodies, will take firm action against the dishonest minority who are, in effect, stealing taxpayers’ money for their own gain.”
Your not smiling now
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Posted on: 20th October 2017
