Benefits cheat carried out six-year £100,000 scam to pay for daughters to go to posh private school
Somali-born Shukri Yusuf posed as a single mum to rake in a range of benefits to fund her two daughters
A BENEFITS cheat scammed £102,000 over six years to pay for her daughters to go to a private school.
Somali-born Shukri Yusuf, 45, posed as a struggling single mum to claim income support, housing benefit and council tax cash.
But investigators found she was married to bus driver Omar Tarab.
Yusuf arrived in Britain in 1999.
She carried out her con in Southall, West London, from June 2008 to April 2014 and used some of the cash to buy a car.
She was due to stand trial at Isleworth crown court but at the start of the hearing changed her plea and admitted failing to notify Ealing council of changes to her circumstances.
Judge Jonathan Perkins jailed her for six months, suspended for two years, and ordered her to complete 175 hours of community work.
Judge Perkins told her: “These crimes funded a lifestyle, big luxuries like a car and private school fees.
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“Your husband is a bus driver and his income was never declared.”
One of the daughters is now at teacher training college and the other is finishing sixth-form studies.
Last night the Department for Work and Pensions said: “Cases like this show how hard our investigators are working.
We are seeking to recover the full amount of the overpayment and, if applicable, impose confiscation orders.”
Ealing Council refused to comment.
In July, we reported how another benefits cheat who swindled £81,000 by claiming she was too disabled to walk was caught out by holiday snaps of her snorkelling.
Linda Hoey of Tamworth, Staffs, fraudulently claimed £65,244 in Disability Living Allowance and used her disability car to avoid paying £15,690 in M6 toll charges over a 14-year period.