Somali mum who cheated Liverpool taxpayers of £18,000 escapes jail sentence

A SOMALI mother who cheated Liverpool taxpayers out of £18,000 escaped jail because she has five young children.

Anab Hersi, 28, and her husband Muled Jama, 33, of Selwyn Street, Kirkdale, received housing and council tax benefits worth more than £7,500 between March, 2005, and February, 2007, after they got back together following a separation and did not tell Liverpool council.

The pair admitted failing to notify, and allowing a failure to notify, a change of circumstances, while Hersi admitted receiving a further more than £11,000 in income support.

Hersi, who spoke through an interpreter, fled Somalia in 2000.

Zia Chauhdry, defending, said: “This is a young woman of previous good character who has seen and dealt with issues which the rest of us cannot hope to imagine.”

Liverpool crown court heard Hersi’s children are eight, seven, five, three and three months old.

Recorder Michael Chambers, QC, sentenced Jama to three months in prison on two counts of dishonesty yesterday, telling him, despite his employment record, he set a poor example to his community.

He gave Hersi a four- month jail sentence for each of her three offences and suspended it for a year, saying: “She has been thoroughly dishonest for two years. In my view, she richly deserves to go to prison, but she has five children.”

Source: lLiverpoolecho