A Universal Credit fraudster who lied about her job to wrongly claim a whopping £34,000 from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has been jailed for nine months.
Frederika Gazova, 26, was sentenced after claiming she had been working 16 hours a week in the cleaning department at a Harehills business that had never heard of her, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor John Batchelor said that she continued to commit benefit fraud after providing false documents.
He said: “She knowingly provided false documents and information to support a false claim to the Department of Work and Pensions for Universal Credit.
While the business was “genuine”, “she wasn’t known at all to the business” and she provided a falsified payslip of her employment, which attempted to prove that she worked in the cleaning department (Stock)
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“In short, she tried to suggest she was working for a man at a small business.”
While the business was “genuine”, Batchelor claimed that “she wasn’t known at all to the business” and she provided a falsified payslip of her employment, which attempted to prove that she worked in the cleaning department.
There is no cleaning department at that business, the court heard.
He said that the con resulted in Gazova pocketing £34,870 over 28 months between February 2020 and June 2022.
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A Probation Service worker told the court: “She does acknowledge her wrongdoing. I’m sceptical whether she understands the gravity of her offending, particularly for how long it went on for.
“She has now paid back £500 of her false claim, displaying remorse for her actions.”
“She’s now in a relationship of just over three years and has two children and they live in a rented property with around £700 a month rent.”
“She tells me she cares for her husband, who has screws in his leg after a car accident, but is not a registered carer for him.”
The worker said that Gazova “now has no income” as her family now relies solely on partner’s income from UC and PIP
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The worker said that Gazova “now has no income” as her family now relies solely on partner’s income from UC and PIP.
The court heard that the household currently receives over £2,000 per month.
However, despite her crime, the fraudster told the worker that she is “more than willing to comply with any order” made by the court.
Mitigating, Danielle Graham explained: “She is still a young woman and is of hitherto good character. She is already a mum-of-two and is still young enough, she is capable of change.”
