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Tax office worker facing jail after near £19k fraud

A former tax office worker has been warned she faces jail after being convicted of a near £19,000 fraud involving tax credit of which she had an ‘in-depth’ knowledge.

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Tracey Griffiths

Tracey Griffiths pocketed £18,863 in two years on the basis she and her husband were no longer a couple when they were still living together as man and wife, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The jury took over four hours to return an 11-1 guilty verdict following a trial in which the 36-year-old, now living in Newbury Road, Wordsley, pleaded not guilty to the fraud.

Judge Peter Cooke remanded her on bail for a pre-sentence report.

He warned: “This is a serious matter and exposes you to the risk of immediate imprisonment but I want a report which offers possible alternatives.”

A provisional date of December 17 has been made for the sentencing hearing.

Mr Paul Mytton, prosecuting, revealed to the jury: “She worked for the Inland Revenue and, interestingly, she worked for a period in the part of the Revenue that deals with potentially fraudulent tax credit claims.”

Griffiths alleged she had separated from her husband Stewart in February 2014 and made her application for tax credit in that month while the couple lived together in Barnet Close, Kingswinford, the court heard.

They went on holiday together seven times, all bar one of which were paid for by him, and the duo put a post on social media celebrating their first wedding anniversary in 2014.

Their finances ran in tandem with bills such as the mortgage being paid by the husband, the court heard.

Mr Griffiths also bought his wife a car and picked up the £3,000 bill for her cosmetic surgery.

The prosecutor declared: “They may not have been as much in love as the day of their wedding but they continued to live in the same house.”

The defendant, who worked in the Wolverhampton office of the Inland Revenue – later renamed HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) – after joining them in 2002, spent some time employed as a compliance officer checking tax credit claims.

Ms Alison Jones, an HMRC officer in the tax credit office in Preston told the court: “She was a very well respected tax credit compliance officer using the same rules as I used while looking at her claim.”

The defendant acknowledged having an ‘in depth’ knowledge of the system, the court heard.

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