Mum who netted £70k was living with toyboy
A MOTHER of five fiddled £70,000 in state benefits by posing as a single mother despite sharing her home with a toy.
Mona Miller, 37, failed to tell the authorities after her Nigerian-born lover Emmanuel Orji, 26, moved in with her.
Miller claimed to be a struggling lone parent who saw the man she had met online as little as once a week.
But investigators discovered two of her children were by Orji and he was constantly outside her house repairing his car.
Cardiff Crown Court was told she even went on Facebook to boast: “I got my man and kids, that’s all that matters.”
Miller admitted three charges of dishonestly failing to notify a change of circumstances at her home in Llandrumney, Cardiff.
But she escaped prison yesterday when Judge Neil Bidder handed her an eight-month jail term, suspended for two years.
He said: “You effectively concealed the fact your partner was living with you. It is a very bad example to set your children.
“If somebody took £70,000 in cash in one go, then you would expect that person to go to prison.”
The court heard that over a five-year period, the defendant fraudulently claimed income support of £53,465, £14,577 housing benefit and £1,324.99 council tax benefit.
Andrew Jones, prosecuting, said that in total, by falsifying her relationship status, she netted a total of £69,367 up to 2016.
He said surveillance by the Department for Work and Pensions found Orji was living there all the time.
Miller was ordered to carry out rehabilitation activity for 30 days and unpaid work for 80 hours, and pay a £140 victim surcharge.