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From the Peterborough ET
http://www.peterboroughet.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=845&ArticleID=1229433
FRAUD: Jailed – but home every weekend
FOR the next 13 months benefit fiddler Julie Thomson will spend three nights a week in a prison cell – but will get home to sleep in her own bed at weekends.
The single mum has become the first offender to be sentenced by a Peterborough court to a part-time jail term.
Thomson (39), of Earls Close, Fletton, Peterborough, raked in £13,543 in income support, housing and council tax benefits while she secretly had a job.
Judge Neil McKittrick told her he was taking the unusual step for the benefit of her teenage son.
Thomson pleaded guilty at Peterborough Crown Court to charges of dishonesty and making false representations to obtain benefits between June 2002 and March 2005.
The court heard that Thomson, who worked as a cashier, had spiralling debts and was desperate to keep the bailiffs from the door.
Now she has to report to Morton Hall prison in Lincoln every Monday at noon and will be locked in a cell every night until Thursday at 2pm, when she can return home to continue her normal family life.
Judge McKittrick told her: "The social security system in this country is there for a purpose. It's to assist those people who merit the appropriate criteria to make sure nobody wants for the basics of life.
"It's a system which I think we can be proud of, but it does depend on plain dealing and truthfulness.
"I am going to adopt a degree of realism by offering to you a sentence which will minimise the effects on your teenage son. I want to keep as many of the harsh realities of prison from him as I can."
Defending Thomson, George Speed had told the court she felt "tremendous remorse, regret and shame" over her actions. He said: "There are no signs of high living. There are no signs of expensive property."
Thomson, who also asked for a further 79 similar offences to be taken into consideration, was also ordered to attend a Drinksense course.
Today, Peterborough Women's Centre manager Marie Flanagan said: "When a person with children is taken into custody, it is not only the perpetrator who suffers. Part-time sentencing could work."
Cllr David Sanders, a member of the Cambridgeshire Police Authority, said:"Every case should be judged on its merits. Perhaps, in this case, it is a punishment that fits the crime. I hope she learns from this."
• PART-TIME sentences have been brought in for offenders who have committed serious crimes that warrant a custodial sentence, but who represent a low risk to the public if the sentence were served intermittently.
Weekend custody is generally intended for offenders in employment, full-time study, or with responsibilities as carers.
For unemployed offenders, sentences will be served in four-day blocks, from Monday to Thursday or Tuesday to Friday.
Weekends are spent at home, allowing continued family and community links.
http://www.peterboroughet.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=845&ArticleID=1229433
FRAUD: Jailed – but home every weekend
FOR the next 13 months benefit fiddler Julie Thomson will spend three nights a week in a prison cell – but will get home to sleep in her own bed at weekends.
The single mum has become the first offender to be sentenced by a Peterborough court to a part-time jail term.
Thomson (39), of Earls Close, Fletton, Peterborough, raked in £13,543 in income support, housing and council tax benefits while she secretly had a job.
Judge Neil McKittrick told her he was taking the unusual step for the benefit of her teenage son.
Thomson pleaded guilty at Peterborough Crown Court to charges of dishonesty and making false representations to obtain benefits between June 2002 and March 2005.
The court heard that Thomson, who worked as a cashier, had spiralling debts and was desperate to keep the bailiffs from the door.
Now she has to report to Morton Hall prison in Lincoln every Monday at noon and will be locked in a cell every night until Thursday at 2pm, when she can return home to continue her normal family life.
Judge McKittrick told her: "The social security system in this country is there for a purpose. It's to assist those people who merit the appropriate criteria to make sure nobody wants for the basics of life.
"It's a system which I think we can be proud of, but it does depend on plain dealing and truthfulness.
"I am going to adopt a degree of realism by offering to you a sentence which will minimise the effects on your teenage son. I want to keep as many of the harsh realities of prison from him as I can."
Defending Thomson, George Speed had told the court she felt "tremendous remorse, regret and shame" over her actions. He said: "There are no signs of high living. There are no signs of expensive property."
Thomson, who also asked for a further 79 similar offences to be taken into consideration, was also ordered to attend a Drinksense course.
Today, Peterborough Women's Centre manager Marie Flanagan said: "When a person with children is taken into custody, it is not only the perpetrator who suffers. Part-time sentencing could work."
Cllr David Sanders, a member of the Cambridgeshire Police Authority, said:"Every case should be judged on its merits. Perhaps, in this case, it is a punishment that fits the crime. I hope she learns from this."
• PART-TIME sentences have been brought in for offenders who have committed serious crimes that warrant a custodial sentence, but who represent a low risk to the public if the sentence were served intermittently.
Weekend custody is generally intended for offenders in employment, full-time study, or with responsibilities as carers.
For unemployed offenders, sentences will be served in four-day blocks, from Monday to Thursday or Tuesday to Friday.
Weekends are spent at home, allowing continued family and community links.
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