Nigerian illegal immigrant benefits cheat is spared jail for her SECOND fraud conviction and says the £50,000 she falsely claimed was to pay off people smugglers who got her into Britain
- Linda Okungowa, 36, arrived in the UK on a false passport 12 years ago
- Claimed money in child benefits despite working under false identities
- But mother-of-three avoided jail in 'amazing display of mercy' by judge
- Came after she was jailed in 2011 for falsely claiming £70,000 in benefits
A Nigerian illegal immigrant has avoided jail despite falsely claiming £50,000 in benefits to pay off the people smugglers who got her into Britain.
Linda Okungowa, 36, of Sheffield, who arrived in the UK on a false passport 12 years ago, claimed the money in destitution and child benefits despite working under false identities.
But the mother-of-three received a suspended sentence in an ‘amazing display of mercy’ after it emerged she had support from a church which was protecting her from committing more crime.
The decision by Judge Simon Lawler QC came five years after Okungowa was sent to prison for eight months for using false documents to obtain work while claiming £70,000 in benefits.
Okungowa arrived in Britain believing she would be able to train as a doctor, but instead became entrenched in a mounting debt cycle with the traffickers who helped her get in.
She said the smugglers kept increasing the amount they said she owed them and she was left so destitute her children were forced to walk 12 miles a day to school in Sheffield because the family could not afford the bus fare.
Okungowa also ended up working multiple jobs in a bid to keep up with the repayments.
Neil Coxon, prosecuting, said that after getting out of prison in 2011, she took on the identity of a friend in London while applying for work.
After getting several jobs in the care sector she asked the woman if the wages could be paid into her bank account and transferred to Okungowa.
Sentence: The judge gave Okungowa a suspended jail term at Sheffield Crown Court (pictured) in what was described by a church that had been supporting her as an ‘amazing display of mercy’
Mr Coxon said Okungowa told the woman she could not be paid directly due to debts associated with her account.
Between July 2011 and August 2014, Okungowa had claimed £22,610 in destitution benefits, and £26,201 in child tax credits and working tax credits between June 2011 and January 2015.
Delighted: Ben Hudd, minister at The Ark church in Sheffield, which supported her, said the suspended sentence was an 'amazing display of mercy'
At Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Lawler said the exceptional circumstances of the case meant he wouldn’t be sending her straight to prison.
He added: ‘I may be criticised because fraud from the public purse is common and everybody in this court knows usually the offender goes immediately to custody.
‘But in this particular case I can see no useful purpose to the public in sending you to custody. I hope you repay the trust the court has placed in you.’
Okungowa, who has three children aged one, nine and 11, said after the case: ‘I’m not proud of the things I have done but I have been given a chance.’
An investigation will now be carried out into Okungowa’s finances to see if she can pay any of the money back. She received an 18-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
Ben Hudd, the minister at The Ark church in Sheffield, which supported her, said: ‘It was a balance between justice and mercy. We saw an amazing display of mercy.
‘Although justice was done with the sentence, the judge had mercy on Linda because of all the things she has dealt with in her life. It was the perfect way forward.’
WHEN JUDGE SIMON LAWLER HAS HIT THE HEADLINES IN THE PAST
Sentencing: Hull graduate Judge Simon Lawler QC
Judge Simon Lawler has been involved in other controversial sentencings in recent years.
In 2013, he allowed a drunken thug who paralysed a stranger with a single punch to leave court with a two-year suspended jail sentence.
Mark Burrows, 35, was left with devastating brain injuries after the assault by Joshua Corker, and his family were suffering a ‘living nightmare’.
But the judge told Corker, 23, at the time: ‘I cannot say the public interest of the family demands I sentence you to immediate custody.’
And in 2009 he gave a suspended sentence to Wesley Gordon - who was dubbed the 'biggest brat in Britain’, having been in trouble for most of his life - for assaulting a police officer.
Judge Lawler decided to suspend the 48-week term for two years after being told by the defendant’s barrister that he ‘could make something of himself’ with the right help.
However less than a year later Gordon was back at Sheffield Crown Court and jailed for more than seven years for raping a 19-year-old woman.
Judge Lawler, 67, went to school in Winchester before graduating in law at the University of Hull.
He has been a circuit judge in the North East since 2002 and his interests are said to be opera, gardening and cricket.
Credit:DailyMail.Uk
No comments:
Post a Comment